18 Years in the Future
by CorneliaSpyre
Summary: The children of King Mario and Queen Peach stumble upon a time machine, and they travel far back in time to Mushroom Kingdom past. Many adventures ensue, but Bowser is up to something concerning Mario's daughter, who wasn't even alive at the time...
1. The New Mushroom Royalty

**Author's Note: My first fic! I hope you like it even thought the first chapter is slightly slow. It mostly introduces the characters and their personalities. Bolded and underlined character's names mean that the next segment of the story is told from their P.O.V. A ~~~~~ line means a change of setting while keeping the same P.O.V. Often times I will say something such as, "5 minutes later…" or "the next day…" underneath the line in italics.**

**Please help me improve this story. No flames, please. This is only my first fic. If you think the first chapter focuses too much on my OC's (Melody, Pietro, & Lillian), wait until later chapters to add this comment to your review. The Mario, Luigi, Daisy, etc. that you know can change a whole lot in 18 years. I didn't want to focus too much on them for fear they might seem OOC to you (that would be very bad, in a nutshell).**

**By the way, I do not own Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Mushroom Kingdom, or any thing else Nintendo. I do however, own Melody, Pietro, Lillian, and the Yoshi language (I don't think there's a Mario Game out there that features an alternate Yoshi language, besides the Yoshis going "Yoshi!" for everything).**

**Enjoy the story! KitKat-Mint.**

**Melody**

"Princess Melody, you are almost 13. 13 is a critical time for a princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. How are you feeling? Are you Nervous? Excited? Scared?" the reporter was practically in my face now, eager to get her questions in.

"You know what, I am stressed. So if you would kindly leave me alone that would be very pleasurable, thank you." I replied, pretending to be really annoyed, which wasn't hard at all. She must have been the sixty-thousandth reporter to pester me today. Geez, people, it's no big deal… But I knew in my heart that my birthday was a big deal for the people of my kingdom. 13 was the age where I would gain some (but not much) official political voice. I could veto anything Kingdom Congress wanted to pass with at least one of my parents' permission, attend royal gatherings, _host_ royal gatherings, and much more. The kingdom was very excited to have another ruler, even a partial one. I'm not saying my parents are bad rulers. In fact, King Mario and Queen Peach are the best the kingdom has seen in years.

Oh, I forgot one not-so-minor detail. I'm getting married when I'm 24 to someone my parents have picked out. The name is revealed to me on my 13th birthday. This is why I'm half dreading the date. I am super jealous of Lillian. She gets to marry whoever she loves, prince or peasant.

Lillian is my cousin from Sarasaland, World Two who is very close in age to me. No matter how many times I say how lucky she is, she says that she hates her life as she knows it. I don't blame her for that either. Lillian is a tomboy who wants nothing more than to go sky diving and _then_ be a lady-like princess.

Enough chatter! I'm going back to the castle and getting these reporters out of my hair… All I wanted was some peace and quiet at the park and this is what I have to go through!

**Pietro**

"Arrrgh! Those reporters just won't leave me alone!" Melody, my older sister, bursts in the door and slams it shut. I look out of the window and see two castle guards trying to reason with 2 or 3 reporters begging them to open the gates to the Mushroom Castle Gardens. I marveled at their persistence. I turned around to see Melody standing behind me.

"Ack! Melody, you scared me half to death!" I said.

"Well, it's your fault you never pay attention to what's going on around you. You're always staring out some stupid window or writing in that diary of yours." She replied.

"It's not a diary, it's a journal! There is all sorts of stuff outside of a window! Please Melody…" I tied to calm my sister down but she was seriously stressed today. She rolled her eyes and walked off to who-knows-where.

Melody and I have argued for as long as I can remember because my quiet personality clashes with her ambitious and talkative one. I kind of feel bad for Toad, who usually resolves these things. Toad took over as royal advisor after his grandfather, Toadsworth, retired. I can't believe Toad's not married yet. He's cool, handsome, and everything I'm not.

Ditto for Toadette, Toad's sister. She's pretty, but doesn't get out much, so not many people know her. However, as head maid of the castle, "getting out" is pretty much impossible, but Mother tries to give her a vacation whenever she can.

I started writing the day's events down in my journal. Writing always helps me sort through my feelings and relax. I wasn't about to tell Melody anytime soon, but I was having a reporter problem too. Since Melody was so unwilling to talk, reporters have been coming up to _me_, asking me questions, and following me around. I also asked Dad what my name meant in Italian.

"Pietro in Italian means 'rock'."

"A rock? Why would you and Mom name me after a rock?"

"A rock is something that can be counted on, trusted, and relied upon, Pietro."

I thought about that for awhile. I'm not entirely sure how you would trust a rock or rely upon a rock, and I don't know if I'm the kind of person who is like that. If my sister were to some how die, get kidnapped, or fall very ill, I would temporarily (or permanently, it depends on the circumstances) take over the kingdom. I don't know if I can do that.

**Lillian**

"Lillian get OUT of those clothes NOW!" shouted Cecilia.

"Alright, alright, I'm getting to it!" I replied. "Do I have to wear a dress? Couldn't I just wear a nice shirt and a long skirt...?" I trailed off. My maid was giving me a steely look of anger that I had seen countless times. "Okay, okay, a dress."

Dresses, pink, and anything girly is WAY overrated. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. You can't _have fun_ in frilly dresses! Do you know what else is overrated? Maids, sports cars, palaces, anything gourmet and anything fancy. There are people in every kingdom that live on almost nothing and here us royalty is wearing frilly dresses as everyday attire. Is this kindness and charity to our kingdom? I don't think so.

Anyway, I was caught wearing blue jeans and my favorite tie-dyed T-shirt. My long, auburn hair was tied into a ponytail and I was bare-footed, which, according to everybody but me in this castle, is not "princess like" at all.

She has threatened me, bribed me, and even gone to Mom and Dad for help in throwing away this shirt. On the other hand, I have hidden, worn underneath dresses, and mailed to my cousins Melody and Pietro's castle this shirt for safe keeping. You may roll your eyeballs at me all you want and it will help you none! Some call me stubborn, but I say I'm strong-willed. Deal with it!

At least I'm going to my cousins' castle for the weekend. I could seriously use a break from all of this. Nobody ever lets me be myself. Really.

**Melody**

I am sitting in the royal car, the _Silver Star _on the long trip to the Mushroom City Airport. Why doesn't Toad Town have an airport? It's the capital city for Toadstool's sake!

The _Silver Star_ is streamlined, silver, shooting-star shaped convertible that has a retractable glass roof. It truly is a nice vehicle, but sometimes I wonder. It has controls that have never been touched by our driver, controls that look like they would be used in a flying airship or a battle machine. My parents have had the _Silver Star_ for as long as I can remember, but I think this car would look better in gold. It's not just my fashion sense, for some reason it doesn't look right in silver. I think that there is more to the _Silver Star _than meets the eye. Technically, it shouldn't even have a name. It would just be called "The royal car", but this car has a name. Why?

Whenever I share my suspicions about the car, though, people roll their eyes and call me superstitious or paranoid.

At least there are no reporters here. Ahh, peace and quiet… for now. Just you wait until we get Lillian from the airport, but for now it's quiet. Mom and Dad are sitting in the semi-front behind our driver and Pietro is staring out of the window. What does he see in (or out of) windows anyway? I see grass and wildflowers stretching for miles around to mountains in the distance but that's just about it. If this car were to break down and leave us stranded let's just say we would be out of luck until Mom calls the castle.

Wait a second, there's a _warp pipe_ out there! What in the Eight-Worlds is a warp pipe doing in the middle of endless grass and flowers? Anybody who uses its counterpart will have to walk for miles before reaching civilization of any sort! A pointless warp pipe must be taken care of by the castle…

After what felt like hours, we finally reached Mushroom City, the biggest city in the kingdom. As we drove along the highway, I marveled at the sights and sounds that I knew were even better at night. We reached the airport and waited for Uncle Luigi (Father's brother), Aunt Daisy, and Lillian. There they are! Lillian was wearing her favorite shirt, much to the dismay of her parents and anger of her maid.

The _Silver Star_ has many seats, enough to fit all of us even though the car itself looks quite small (and not by royal standards either, from a distance it looks like a 1-person vehicle). Lillian and I began to chat about recent news and various other things, while Pietro proceeded to open up his book. Sometimes he pushes me to the limit! He needs to get out more, even if it means being bombarded by reporters.

**Pietro**

I gazed out of the car window onto the wilderness of the Mushroom Kingdom. A warp pipe sprouted up between the tall grasses and wildflowers. I wonder where it leads…

"Pietro… Come back to World One, Pietro!" Melody shouted in my ear.

"Don't be so hard on him, Melody" said Lillian. At least Lillian stuck up for me while I was here. "Pietro, how's life? You haven't said a word since I got here," she added.

"Oh, good," I replied and once again retired to my Mushroom Kingdom scenery. Melody rolled her eyes and once again began to talk to Lillian.

Even I can't keep myself entertained by just passing scenery for long, so I started reading the various billboards that ran alongside the highway.

_About half an hour later…_

We returned to the Mushroom Castle and Melody was instantly pulled aside by reporters. I looked around for Mother or Father or even Aunt Daisy or Uncle Luigi, but they had already gone inside. Odd, Mother was worried about Melody and her reporters. I didn't think she would leave us out here.

I think Melody is seriously starting to get ticked by those reporters because she told them to bug off before they even got to pitch their questions, which is saying something for these reporters. At first Lillian was jealous, "You seriously get to be on live TV on a regular basis? Melody that's so cool!", but quickly took it back after she saw how the reporters simply would not leave her alone. _Then _they came to _me!_

"Your sister is very unwilling to talk to us, Prince Pietro. How is she coping with the stress of this coronation?" said a Toad reporter with green spots and a TTBC news cap (Toad Town Broadcasting Channel).

"Um, I'd rather not talk right now. Come back later, okay?" I replied. Melody looked angry. I didn't know why, but I was about to find out.

"Never tell them to come back later, Pietro. You have mistakenly granted them permission to come INSIDE the castle and they've caught it ON TAPE!" she said awfully loudly.

"It was an honest mistake. What's wrong with answering a few questions? Some people would give their right arm to be on TV for just a few moments! I'm sorry!" I replied and went inside the castle. Then something happened that I most definitely did not expect.

"…can't just leave it in the basement! The kids could find it and then what would we do?" It was my aunt Daisy; talking about us! What didn't she want us to find? Without thinking, I moved closer to the closed door of our sitting room.

Dad's voice then sounded, "I know it was irresponsible for him to drop it here without leaving us many options, but he does need our help as the officials are hot on his trail." Were Mom and Dad helping a criminal mastermind? Was a suitcase with a million coins in it in the basement as I speak?

Next, I heard Mom voice her opinion, "We will advise the kids to stay out of the basement until we can find a better place to put it. The professor is an old friend of ours and I think we should help in every way possible."

"I agree with Peach," added Uncle Luigi, "But I think we should cover the machine considering that it _is_ in the basement." There were murmurs of agreement.

"Let's do that now, because I'm slightly paranoid that something will happen to it," said Mom. Oh, she most certainly had a _reason_ to be nervous! I was getting more curious by the second. So Mom, Dad, Uncle Luigi, and Aunt Peach were helping an old professor friend hide a machine because officials were "after him" for some reason or the other. I heard the adults getting up to leave so I hurriedly walked away from the door and around the corner. I heard the adults' footsteps leading to the linens closet and then down to the basement where this mysterious machine was being held.

I had to tell Melody and Lillian! I ran back outside.

"Hey, Pietro, do you know where you keep the tennis…" Lillian started, but didn't finish.

"There is a mysterious machine hidden in the basement! Come on! We have to go check it out!" I tried not to shout but it was very difficult.

"What are you talking about? How would you know for sure of such nonsense, Pietro?" Melody retorted.

"I heard Father, Mother, Uncle Luigi, and Aunt Daisy talking about a professor who dropped off a machine at the castle on short notice! They're hiding it in…" I was interrupted.

"Pietro, be quiet!" said Melody.

"Why, Melody!"

"No, seriously, be quiet!" she hushed. I turned around to find Uncle Luigi and Aunt Daisy heading toward the _Silver Star_. They got in the car and drove off. We resumed talking.

"So, you've been eavesdropping on Mom and Dad, huh?" said Lillian, making me feel slightly embarrassed. "Look, even if there _is_ something in the basement, it's probably something they don't want us to see. Let's just forget about it, okay?"

But I wasn't about to forget about this mystery machine, not a chance. I wrote down the mystery machine in my journal and went to bed, but I simply couldn't sleep.


	2. The Mystery Machine

**Melody**

I wasn't about to tell Pietro, but the whole "Mystery Machine" thing was not leaving the top of my mind. I couldn't sleep that night, and I don't think Pietro did either, judging by the way he looked at breakfast the next morning. I think Lillian was the only one who got any sleep at all, even our parents looked tired.

"What is up with you guys today?" asked Lillian curiously after kicking our behinds into the pavement (metaphorically, of course) for the fourth time at tennis. It was me and Pietro versus her and she still whipped us! She walked around the side of the net and came closer. "It's not the you-know-what, is it?" she said more quietly. We looked at one another and nodded. The need to know what in the Eight-Worlds was in the Mushroom Castle basement had grown from curiosity to a burning desire.

I knew that we all wanted to go and see if Pietro was right, but simply would not admit it.

"Okay, fine, let's check it out, but change into Lillian-style clothes. The basement is not the cleanest place in the castle," I said. Everyone got smiles on their faces and I got replies of "Melody, you're the best!" and "Me-style? I've set a trend? You're awesome still, though!" as if _I_ had been keeping them out of the basement (or insulting her clothes). All of a sudden I wanted to change my mind. There was a sense of foreboding that would not go away…

I walked inside the castle from the tennis courts to change, but was instantly greeted by Mother.

"Melody? You have to be at Cici's in 10 minutes and it takes 15 to drive there! Let's go!" said Mom and walked off. Poison mushrooms, how could I forget? I was getting fitted for my coronation dress today at Cici's Regal, an upscale fashion store that only the rich ever went to.

"Um, hold on one second…" I said. I ran up the stairs and crashed into Lillian.

"Ow! Melody!"

"Sorry Lillian. Look, I completely forgot about my appointment at Cici's Regal today. You and Pietro can go ahead and check out the machine, just don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"Don't worry Melody, you can count on us!" she replied, but for some reason, that comment only made me feel worse.

"Good luck!" I called and boarded the _Silver Star_.

I finally get to ride in the semi-front of the _Silver Star!_ The "semi-front", in case you are wondering, is the row of seats behind the driver's. Sometimes, the mystery of the _Silver Star_ annoys me to insanity sometimes! There is a large space where I think a passenger's seat would fit perfectly…

My worries were completely forgotten as we reached Cici's. Cici's Regal Dresses and Formal Attire was my absolute favorite place to be on a rainy day. They sold mostly beautiful dresses, but also sold a vast array of makeup, shoes, accessories, and much more. It was the perfect place to put together the perfect ensemble. They also had a small men's section, but that was mostly for the men whose wives/girlfriends forced them to come along. Cici's was enormous. You never really had to "shop around", to find the perfect match. Cici's was also expensive, and only really meant for the rich.

I had an appointment with Cici herself, the head fashion consultant and manager of the store, who was almost more wealthy than the royal family themselves. I was instantly whisked away to a small but elegant fitting room in the back of the store while Mother waved good luck.

I was seriously mistaken about the fitting room; it was not anywhere close to small. The whole room was hexagon-shaped and mirrors covered all walls except the door. I noticed Cici moving toward a bump in one of the mirror-walls that I soon realized was a doorknob to a closet full of what seemed like a shrunken Cici's Regal. The enormous closet held what you would find in the store, but less of.

Cici stepped into the closet-room, so I followed. No way… This must be the Royal Reserve! Every dress in the Royal Reserve is not only for royalty only, but is one-of-a-kind. There would be no other dress like it in the Eight-Worlds. But was this the Royal Reserve?

Cici was a purple-spotted toad who always wore lots of makeup and elegant clothes. She was also full of words and her large horn-rimmed glasses were quite a sight. Before we even came inside the closet-room (Royal Reserve?), I learned how honored she was that I was here and how she didn't know what color I usually wore and that she would like me to tell her. At first I was quite confused.

"Your mother always wore pink," she explained, "What's your favorite color?" Oh, duh.

"Purple," I said. Cici didn't seem to agree. But if purple was the color I always wore, so she couldn't argue with that, right?

"I am not so sure, any purple dress that I carry clashes dreadfully with your blonde hair…" she said and began to browse among the racks of small dresses. I looked up and saw a sign hanging above the dresses. Sure enough, I _was_ in the Royal Reserve. I was jostled from my thoughts when Cici said, "How about green?"

Green? I don't know, but any doubt I had in my head was driven out when I saw the dress Cici was holding in her hand. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen…The dress reached to the floor and had emeralds set along the bottom. Were they real? Knowing the Royal Reserve, they probably were. My eyeballs started at the bottom of the dress and moved upward. The bottom half of the dress was made of the finest silk and underneath the emeralds, the fabric was a darker teal, but as my eyes looked further up, it faded from teal to jade green. The top half reminded me slightly of Mother's favorite dress, but with a noticeable difference. There was a teal band that marked the waist of the dress and an emerald set in the center, but my, there was no way that Mother would let me wear a strapless dress on such an occasion!

"Go ahead, try it on," said Cici.

"But Mother would never let me wear this dress to the coronation and ball!" I said.

"There are ways to persuade the Queen," she said with a smile and once again encouraged me to try it on.

So I changed in the little dressing room while Cici waited in the Royal Reserve. I'd have to admit, I did look stunning in the dress. It was long enough for my long legs and this particular shade of green matched my blonde hair and tan complexion. Maybe Mom would let me wear it just once. After all, Cici had just given me a small white jacket to wear during the coronation itself.

I went back into the Royal Reserve and Cici took some measurements of sorts while I gazed at the clothes on display. Then we messed around with shoes, makeup, possible hairstyles, and even jewelry. I was having the time of my life, but the curiosity to know what was in the Mushroom Castle basement had returned. The urge to know what the machine was had grown phenomenally. I wondered what Lillian and Pietro were doing right now.

**Lillian**

I was nervous. What if the machine was dangerous? Why are my parents, aunt, and uncle hiding this thing from us? I met Pietro in the main hallway and together we descended the stairs to the basement. I wasn't about to share my fears with him, that might make him even more nervous than he was (pretty nervous, I'd say, considering that he's as white as a sheet.)

There were several inches of water in the basement and I was glad Melody advised us to change. I wondered how she was doing and if she'd found a nice dress yet. There was supposed to be dancing after the coronation and Aunt Peach and Uncle Mario were supposed to pick Melody's husband based on who she seemed to love the most.

"Her first dance at thirteen… she's growing up so fast," I heard Mom talking about the coronation to Dad a few days ago. The dress would be a big factor in this dance.

Pietro and I splashed through the slimy water, soaking my socks. There were sounds of dripping from the plumbing and was that scurrying I heard? The only light came from the torches mounted on the wall. The reason why such an important machine would be kept in here unless someone was really desperate for a hiding place within the castle grounds was beyond me.

We came upon a door. There was no debate necessary to decide whether or not to open it. I took a deep breath and turned the knob, but it would not turn. The door was locked. I tried again but it still would not open.

Of course. I should have known they would take extra precautions to keep this thing safe. Why would they leave it unlocked? I sighed in exasperation. All of a sudden there was a crunch and creaking noise. I turned toward Pietro. Somehow he had gotten the door to open.

"How did you do that?" I asked him. The words bounced off of the walls and echoed throughout the basement. He shrugged. How is this kid 3 years younger than me and yet stronger? I even preferred sports and exercise while he preferred books. Nothing is making sense…

I took the first step into the damp room and looked around. My heart stopped. There it was in the corner of the dingy room covered in cloth. The Mystery Machine in its full and mysterious glory. We took a few slow steps closer to the machine. There was water in the room, but the machine was sitting on a 2-foot high platform. The machine was huge and heavy looking. I looked like people could fit inside of it… I was scared to lift the cloth.

"We lift on 3," said Pietro as the cloth was heavy. This time, his voice did not echo.

"1…2…**3**!" he shouted. The cloth was pulled back to reveal… a giant clock.

A giant clock? A giant clock? ARE YOU SERIOUS?

"This machine plagues my dreams, it makes me be always distracted, it disturbs my very stinking CONCIOUSNESS and it turns out to be a GIANT CLOCK!" I shouted, furious. While I was raving on about how stupid giant clocks are, however, Pietro was looking it over.

"Lillian, check this out. It seems as if you can go inside this thing. I've found a doorknob!" he said.

"I do not care if you can view the inside of a giant clock. The door is probably for maintenance, for setting the dumb thing to daylight savings time or something of that nature…" I responded, still very frustrated that the machine did not have the glory that I had expected.

Pietro opened the door and went inside the clock. I decided to go with him, after all, Melody said not to do anything stupid.

I went inside and shut the door. There was a window in the back of the clock, but I still felt around for a light switch and found a button. I pressed it and lights came on inside that gave us a better view of the inside of the clock. I still didn't quite understand why you would want to go inside a giant clock, though. I noticed Pietro messing with something resembling an olive green video game controller.

"Where did you get that?" I asked. He gestured toward a shelf on the wall. I peered over his shoulder and saw that you could set on a screen in the center of the controller the date, time, and chose various places in the Mushroom Kingdom, including "RW Warp." What the heck did that mean?

"Seriously, what is that?" I asked again. I think the Mystery Machine had more mysteries than I think it does… This thought was soon confirmed.


	3. Into the Past

**A/N: Behold Chapter 3! I will put translations of the Yoshi language in italics next to the dialogue itself, but I have a complete dictionary posted on my profile page so that in case I make a mistake translating, you can prove it to me.**

**Beside Nintendo characters' (Mario, Peach, etc.) names I will put what year the character is in the story. Mario could tell his part in 2010 or in 2028 and you would never know unless I put that in there.**

**Anyway, enjoy Chapter 3, KitKat-Mint.**

**Melody**

On the way home from Cici's, the reality of turning 13 and having a say in the government of the Mushroom Kingdom hit me like a slap in the face. Thousands of lives would be under my rule and responsibility. Thousands of lives would look up to me. Thousands of lives… I looked at the dress I was holding in my lap. This dress represented everything I was going through. It was one-of-a kind, like me. It was fancy and wealthy (or represented some serious coins), like me, The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. It was hard to even consider myself a princess. This dress was beautiful; it even made the wearer beautiful to some extent. Young men would come from all over World One to look at me and drop their claim.

This was all so stupid! I'm almost 13, the "Ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom" thing I can handle, maybe. The whole "Married in 11 Years to Someone Your Parents Will Pick out the Night You turn 13" thing I can't. Oh, I wish I could get away from it all…

Of course, Mother had been furious when Cici told her our dress of choice. But Cici showed her the jacket and talked her into letting me have it. The coronation was drawing very near. Today, I had to pick food that "matched the theme and style of the ball." I was perplexed, but Mother and Aunt Daisy walked me through everything.

All of a sudden, my vision fogged and the scene outside the window changed. The cars looked older fashioned, and it was raining heavily. It was cold, but the chill was more from my crept out state of mind than from the scene itself. As quickly as the strange image came, it vanished, and I was back to looking at tall grasses, wildflowers, and mountains in the distance. I am stressed, and this is what it's coming to; yes, yes, that's it…

**Pietro**

Lillian took a closer look at the controller. "May I look at that?" she asked me. Curiosity had obviously replaced her anger at the giant clock. I was nervous to hand over the controller, but did it anyway; my mind needed to figure out what was going on. Something was nagging at me, but I didn't know what it was. Maybe I should try a recap like they do on those detective shows on TTBC; those always help me get the facts straight.

Okay, recap. An old professor friend of Mom and Dad's comes to the castle. He/She was looking for a place to hide a machine because "The Officials" were hot on his/her trail for some reason. Mom and Dad hid the machine in the basement because they didn't want us to find it. The machine has a clock-like appearance. You can go inside of the machine. There is a controller where you can chose any setting in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Setting, that's it! You can pick anywhere in Mushroom Kingdom past on this controller. The clock appearance, this controller, everything makes sense, or some sense, considering Mom and Dad's fantastical history. Everything weird always happened around them, magic, wonders, and an evil that I was "too young" to know about. Maybe Melody would learn about it on her thirteenth birthday and pass it on to me.

Why am I so distracted and absentminded all of the time?

This thing was a time machine. Then I realized something else. This machine is probably worth billions of coins and it's also probably illegal, and I was letting Lillian, of all people, fool with the controls.

"Lillian…"

"What, Pietro? Hey, is this like a weird video game or something because I'm not getting how to play," Lillian replied. This comment made a wave of anxiety rush over me.

"Lillian, that's not a video game,"

"Well, then what is it?"

"A time machine," I said. For a second or two, Lillian was speechless, but then came out with,

"But wouldn't it be cool to go back in time just for the day? We could just set the time to now, later, if that makes sense,"

"Lillian," I said, "I think we should tell Melody first. This is something she would want to know, after all, she would be almost back from Cici's by now."

Lillian was once again speechless.

There was a burst of light and color outside the small window. A distant rumbling could be heard and the ground began to shake.

"Lillian… WHAT DID YOU PRESS?" I had to fight to keep my voice from shouting.

"Nothing, honest…" she trailed off and fainted to the ground.

All at once I felt guilty at what I had done. Lillian never fainted unless something serious had happened, by Lillian standards. Drat! No, more than drat! Double drat! I had no idea how to revive a fainted person. In TV shows, all you have to do was pour a bucket of water on the fainted person's head, but I heard from somewhere else that this was not a good idea. The royal family always had a doctor stationed near the castle in case anything bad happened.

I realized how little I knew about the outside world. I never went to a public school; instead, a private tutor came to the castle daily to instruct me and Melody. We rarely went into town unless it was absolutely necessary, and I suddenly understood Lillian's thirst for adventure.

I was scared to open the door again. I was going to have to explain everything to Mom and Dad and have the castle doctor take care of Lillian. I was nervous, but being honest and truthful are both qualities of a good leader, which is exactly what I want to become. I opened the door to find… No! It can't be! There's no way…

A magnificent scene lay before me. Thick deciduous woods surrounded me, the giant clock/time machine, and a still unconscious Lillian. I depicted in the far distance a clearing. Okay, if we really were in the Mushroom Kingdom's past, then all I had to do was grab the controller and set it for today's (well, not really today's) date, time, and place: May 19, 2029, at 2:34 PM in the Mushroom Castle Basement's plumbing and pressure controls room. I turned around to reset the controller when I found it… gone. It was simply gone without any trace but a frazzled half-wire.

No… no… NO! This is NOT happening, I refuse to let it! My breathing was rapid but my mind focus turned back to the unconscious Lillian. She needed help. I was mentally divided to explore the clearing first and come back for Lillian in case there was anything dangerous out there, but if Lillian woke up and saw that I was gone and the fact that we were stuck in the middle of the forest, who knows what could happen? The other choice was to drag Lillian into possible danger. Wait, there was a compromise. I left a note explaining my actions and decided to explore the clearing, but I couldn't help but to feel paranoid.

The clearing was farther away than I had previously thought, and for every step I took, the more paranoid I got. I eventually came upon a small trail, and a feral goomba scurried off of the trail and out of sight. I broke a stick off of a tree nearby and staked it deep into the side of the unkempt trail, and a smaller stick that branched off of the larger one was facing toward the way I had come. It's a good thing I thought of that. I took a deep breath and turned right on the trail. The clearing was just around this bend… or the next… okay, maybe the _next_ corner… Was this a trick clearing? I could feel the time passing. Was Lillian okay? I finally got to the clearing and found the most bizarre building I had ever seen.

It looked like an ordinary cottage, but had a green warp pipe sticking out of the roof and more pipes lying at its side. I knew it was in the process of being fixed, because one of the windows was still boarded up, but it looked like it was being lived in. I knocked on the door, scared of who will answer it. A green yoshi opened the door.

The little yoshi was a forest green color, similar to the leaves on the trees. He obviously only spoke Yoshi, because he looked at me with a confused expression when I tried to ask him for help in English, but being a future diplomat, I was near fluent in Yoshi.

Yoshi: "Ses sus yosh malafilshi?" _Why are you here?_

Me: "Amishi sus nosh ambushi! Seches yosh quarish? Ashi?" _My friend is not conscious! Will you help? Please?_

Yoshi: "Kish! Mish nosh urkdidiresh popeish nellesh!" _Of course! I never turn down someone in need!_

Me: "Chimibas! Chimibas!" _Thank you! Thank you!_

The Yoshi and I ran down the path and into the forest the direction my stick pointed to find Lillian standing there, waiting for us.

Yoshi: "Sus femis yosh amishi?" _Is she your friend?_

Me: "Pikish. Femis noms sus Lillian." _Yes. Her name is Lillian._

Yoshi: "Mish noms sus Yoshi" _My name is Yoshi._

Me: "Dulish Yoshi?" _Just Yoshi?_

Yoshi: "Pikish." _Yes._

"Would you guys stop talking in Yoshi?" Lillian said, annoyed, "I know a little bit of Yoshi, but you really don't need to know Yoshi if you live in Sarasaland."

Yoshi: "Femis sus ambushi?" _She is conscious?_

I continued conversing with Yoshi in Yoshi, and translating for Lillian. Lillian looked bewildered. I asked Yoshi what time it was, since my watch was ahead by several years. He replied that it was almost 6:00. We needed food and a place to stay, for it was getting dark fast.

Yoshi: "Yosh vush redosh ish mish!" _You can stay with me!_

Me: "Chimibas! Yosh hosh fotekish ersh quash!" _Thank you! You have done so much!_

We headed back to my new friend Yoshi's house and ate some barbecued goomba, which was absolutely delicious. I had never tasted barbecued goomba before, because at the castle because it was considered a "commoner's dish." The house itself looked shabby on the outside, but very nice on the inside with wood-paneled walls and carpet. It was no Mushroom Castle, but I thought that the simple pleasures of the countryside (or rather, forestside) made it seem better. The house was only composed of two rooms, a main room and a bedroom with a small closet. The main room served as a kitchen, living room, laundry room, and dining room. In fact, scratch the dining room, we ate on the couch. Lillian, who was a tomboy, enjoyed the stay very much, despite the fact something was obviously bothering her. That night, Yoshi and I each took one of two couches while Lillian slept in the bed.

Yoshi didn't know we were from the future. He was still partly a stranger. He didn't know that we were royalty, either. Mother made it clear at an early age that there were people out there who wanted the kingdom and would do anything, even poison the royal family, to get it. She seemed scared of something. In fact, Mother rarely went out of the castle except on royal business.

_The next morning…_

Yoshi went out hunting early the next morning, hunting for what I didn't know. Lillian and I were discussing how to get back home, considering the controller was missing.

"We need to find out whom or what took the controller," suggested Lillian.

"I agree," I replied, "but whatever took it must have had a reason…"

"It doesn't matter," said Lillian, "what matters is that we find it and go home. What is a random someone who likes to steal things for fun?"

We thought that over for a minute or so. I wondered if there was a town nearby. We could ask the locals if they know of anybody who steals stuff _and_ can get past someone that quietly. After all, I only had my back turned for a few seconds. I proposed the idea to Lillian.

"Not bad, brain. Let's ask Yoshi when he gets back," she responded. So we did.

Yoshi gave us some directions to a warp pipe. Geographically, the nearest town was almost a hundred miles away, so the nearest pipe led to Toad Town, the capital city of the Mushroom Kingdom. All we had to do was head down the path and at the end, there was a warp pipe.

"Are you sure you can trust this Yoshi's directions? You've only known him for less than a day!" whispered Lillian to me while we were making Yoshi's bed.

"I'm positive. There's something about him that I can trust. I know him from somewhere," I replied.

We set off into the woods at a quick pace. I said "Chimibas! _(thank you!)_" to Yoshi, who replied "Tewefish redegish gohomush! _(Come back anytime),_" and proceeded to hang up some overalls on the clothesline.

Hold the paratroopa! Since when did Yoshis wear any clothes besides their shell and maybe some shoes? Hmm… Despite the oddity, I shrugged it off.

**Princess Peach (past)**

Toadsworth was "awash with relief" as always when I return from Bowser's castle, but resumed wedding preparation as if nothing had happened. These kidnappings were getting more and more frequent… At least Mario was here! I turned to give Mario his cake, but he was already flying off in that car of his. I guess he didn't want to interfere.

I was marrying Prince Esteban of Isle Delfino in a month, and I was not happy. When I was 13, I had a major crush on the Prince and Toadsworth was delighted to have me marry him. His kingdom was rich and powerful, and my kingdom was vast in size. Combined kingdoms would make us the political power of World One! Over the years, however, he grew to be too rich, and began to love money more than me. As one of the most beautiful princesses in the Eight-Worlds, he began to treat me as more of a sideshow. He did not love me at all, but loved the popularity I would bring him by our marriage.

Once inside, I was further shocked to find my best friend Daisy sitting on my bed.

"What's up, Peach!" she said, but then saw my sad face. "Is everything alright? I thought I might welcome you back from your latest kidnapping, but did Bowser do something to you?"

"No," I replied, my voice without expression. Daisy seemed to guess what was wrong anyway.

"Mario still hasn't asked you out, has he?" she said. I looked up from the floor and Daisy smiled. "It absolutely stinks you have to marry someone picked out for you nearly ten years ago who doesn't even love you! It's not right! Whoever made up that rule I_ WILL_ come after…" Daisy continued on and began to pace the floor. I had to force down my laughter. Daisy cared so much about my troubled, stressed out self. "Maybe you can convince Toadsworth that this is stupid… Mario loves you, everyone knows that."

I wondered if my feelings for the red-capped hero were really that obvious. All of a sudden there was a knock at the front door of the castle. I looked out the window, expecting the worst. The even-more-worse-than-worse was here, all right. I felt sick.

"We'll face him together," said Daisy. "Maybe he won't be as bad."

I took a deep breath and opened my bedroom door. Daisy and I walked down the steps toward my doom. I hated to call him my fiancé, it was too disgusting. He had been visiting a lot lately, and I only had to wonder why. I was considering asking Toadsworth, but he either didn't know, or wouldn't tell me. Toadsworth wouldn't budge when it came to these things.

"So… How are you, my beautiful fiancée?" He tried to advance on me, but I backed up behind Daisy. I should seriously consider telling the castle guards not to let this guy in the gate, but an arranged marriage is an arranged marriage. Nothing Mario or I do can change that. "Is this your friend, Sweet Peach?"

"Her name is Daisy, and _stop calling me that!"_ Every nickname he comes up with for me infuriates me to the Darklands.

"Why do you stop by so often anyway?" Daisy counters.

"She is my soon-to-be-wife! I should stop by for as long as I possibly can!" he says.

I scowl at him and walk off. Daisy follows. I flop down on my bed and sob. Meanwhile, I can hear Toadsworth talking amiably with the prince. The fact that Toadsworth is on such friendly terms with him makes me think of Mario and wonder if he loves me.

I half-hope he does, even though we would be breaking one of the most ancient of Mushroom Kingdom royalty laws. There must be a way to amend those laws. There must…


	4. Music, Marriage, and MushroomKart

**Lillian**

Pietro and I trooped down the well-worn trail to the warp pipe, saying nothing. It was my fault we were here. I had the controller in my hands when the time machine started up, but I swear, I did not press a single button. The time machine started up on its own! But I must have done something… After about 30 minutes or so, we reached a large clearing.

The clearing dropped off into more woods in the form of a steep cliff that must have been at least sixty feet high. The scenery was amazing. Goonies took flight from the trees and landed elsewhere. I could see the feral goombas running around, looking for food… In the distance, I could also see a town, but miles and miles away.

The warp pipe was standing in the middle of the clearing, inviting us to jump in. I looked down into the warp pipe while Pietro read the side.

"Toad Town: Capital City," he read off the pipe. "This is definitely the right pipe."

We stared down into the pipe, neither of us wanted to go first. I took a deep breath, and to make up for all I might have done to get us into this, jumped in.

I had never taken warp pipes before; the Mushroom Royal Family and the Sarasaland Royal Family always took the telepad. However, when Pietro asked Yoshi earlier if there was a telepad nearby, Yoshi looked at him like he was psycho. The telepad _was _quite a recent innovation in inter-world travel… How far back in time were we?

It was an odd feeling, going down a warp pipe. You could feel the wind rushing past your face and occasionally see bursts of green color in the distance. It was a very uncomfortable way of travel, your elbows would hit the sides of the pipe and you were forced to be stock-still.

This strange sensation only lasted a few seconds, and before I knew it, I was laying face-down in the dirt. I got up and observed the bumps and bruises on my elbows and knees. Soon, Pietro popped out of the warp pipe, looking like he had suffered the same fate. I looked ahead to find a dirt path.

"Well… I suppose we should get going," I said. Pietro nodded in reply.

It took about fifteen minutes walking on the dirt path until we reached a cobblestone road. We began to follow the road along with many carts and cars, all headed toward the same destination: Toad Town. We reached a bend, and what was beyond it took my breath away. It was Toad Town alright, but much more… quaint. I hadn't been to Toad Town often, but it looked so different! The shops were packed with carts and cars, and beyond the barriers, people, toads, koopas, piantas, shy guys… all sorts of people from kingdoms all over the Eight-Worlds! I soon saw what they were all here for: A MushroomKart race!

A horn honked behind us, so we descended in to the bustling city. The crowd pushed us and others toward the giant race track: Peach Circuit. I barely had time to take in the scenery. I broke away from the crowd at the city park, but I couldn't find Pietro. I sighed in exasperation. What was I going to do now? At this rate, we won't find the controller for months!

There was only one option: delve back into the crowd. I took a deep breath (I've been taking a lot of those lately…) and braved the current. I even called Pietro's name.

"Pietro! Pietro where are you?" I called with no response but numerous people staring at me like I was a weirdo. Which for royalty, I guess I am. With my favorite tie-dye shirt and tomboyish attitude, I was anything but normal. I didn't even bother wearing makeup, which got me strange looks from my handmaidens. I would respond "I'm not even going out of the castle today! Why does it matter?"

Following the crowd, I eventually reached the gate to the MushroomKart track, Peach Circuit. I couldn't go any further; Yoshi had given us 100 coins for survival, but Pietro was the one who had them. I stepped out of the way of the crowd. If I couldn't go any farther, Pietro couldn't either. I waited… and waited… and waited… but no Pietro. I looked at my watch and saw that it was well past noon. My stomach was growling. Yoshi's breakfast of pancakes and sausage had been delicious and filling, but I was starving here! Meanwhile, the crowd was beginning to thin out; the last stragglers were begging the ticket sales toads for admission, but with no luck. The stands were full to bursting.

"Young lady," someone said. I looked up, startled. The speaker was a police toad of some sort. He may have been in charge of crowd control or something like that. "No loitering." he instructed. What? No way… I can not believe past Mushroom police people! I could get Melody to fire you right now! The way past Mushroomians treated royalty… Wait a second. No one here knows that I'm royalty, just Pietro. I mentally slapped myself in the face.

I thought up a lie quick, "I'm waiting for a friend," which was at least half true.

"Well, I'm sorry ma'am, but hanging around here after the stands are full is against the law…" he replied, "You can wait for your friend at the park, which really isn't far from here."

Frustrated, I walked off. Despite how much I wanted to slap this guy, the last thing Pietro and I needed was to get in trouble the law, no matter how trivial the broken law may seem.

A stand selling hot dogs and nachos caught my eye. My stomach was growling louder than ever. All of a sudden, I saw Pietro! But he was at the top of the stands; how did he get up there? He seemed to have seen me too. He nodded toward a spring-trampoline-looking-thingy hidden behind a column. Wait, I was supposed to bounce on that? No way! _But it can't be that hard… can it?_ My inner voice reminded me of all my skydiving and bungee jumping dreams. I suppose this was a start. I stepped onto the trampoline and jumped.

I shouted with glee as I rose up into the air and onto the top row of stands with Pietro, who had two bowls of nachos and two Mushroom Colas. Yes! Food! Then I saw someone that made me stand frozen: Officer No-Loitering once more.

"Not him again!" I whispered to Pietro. Officer No-Loitering's eyeballs were darting from us to the hidden springboard and back to us at the top of the stands. An ugly scowl stretched across his face.

"So, you've made enemies already Lillian?" he replied with a silly grin on his face.

"It's not my fault! He comes up to me, while I'm _waiting for you_ and says 'no loitering', so you can only imagine how angry I was…" I trailed off when I saw that Pietro was laughing his head off. Annoyed, I looked back down at Officer No-Loitering. "Pietro, how did you know about the springboard?"

"Father said he used to use it to watch Uncle Luigi race all the time," he replied. That's odd… It bothered me quite a bit that a responsible person such as Uncle Mario would use a springboard to watch someone race.

Officer No-Loitering walks off, obviously plotting revenge.

"Besides," I said, "Aren't we supposed to be looking for the controller rather than watching a MushroomKart race?"

"Well" Pietro replies, "Every Mushroomian in their right mind will be here to see the race. The town will be deserted." Drat. I suppose he was right and I'm wrong… again.

**Mario (past)**

I bounced high on the springboard and landed not-so-neatly on the top row of stands. Two random kids occupied the spot where I usually land; An 11 year old boy who looked a lot like me (minus the mustache) and 14 year old girl with long auburn hair tied into a ponytail—_what is she wearing!_ Now THAT is the most outspoken shirt I have ever seen… They both gaped at me like I was some sort of Mushroom Kingdom hero. Oh wait, I am!

"What?" I said and stepped over them and sat on the row below. I looked back down at the ground. There's that cop that's always hanging out near the springboard… He never actually stops me from using it, just shows up late and scowls.

As I waited for the race to start, my eyes couldn't help but to wander over past the stands, past the people, past the sales toads selling cotton candy, popcorn, and cola, and over towards the front of the stands, to the box seat reserved for the royal family (of one), where the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom sat, prepared to watch the race. My eyeballs lingered there for just a few seconds before I forced them elsewhere. No, stop thinking about her… she's getting married in a month to a snobby prince… And there's nothing you can do about that.

**Melody**

I sat straight up in a cold sweat. I had fallen asleep in the car. This just goes to show how stressed I am… the weird dreams have begun, and all of them involve random scenes from who-knows-where, who-knows-when.

_A younger version of Mother fighting with a guy with a deep tan and a Delfinan accent…_

_A house with a pipe sticking out of its roof…_

_A younger Father cheering on a younger Uncle Luigi at MushroomKart…_

_An old fashioned Toad Town crowded with people…_

_Lillian and Pietro eating nachos…_

Hold on a second!

That is really weird… None of the scenes from any of my dreams involve my cousin and brother. Thinking of them, I haven't seen them since they went to check out the machine, but I haven't gone inside yet either. I went inside and asked if anyone had seen Pietro and Lillian. No one had. I decided to check the basement, but before I could, Toadette walked up to me wheeling a cart full of cases for musical instruments.

"Hi Melody," she said, sounding just as stressed as I, "Queen Peach wants you in the entrance hall to select the music for the ball and its order." She sounded wistful, as if she would rather be doing that. I thought for a second, and then spoke.

"Toadette, I'll let you choose the music. I know how much experience you have with this sort of thing, and you know what? I have zero experience with music. When I come back I'll approve of it. Okay?" Toadette looked overjoyed.

"Thanks Princess Melody!" she exclaimed and practically skipped down the hallway, despite being far older than me, and leaving her cart of cases behind.

I wheeled the cart to the side of the hallway and continued to walk quickly down the hallway towards the basement steps when there came a knock at the front door. I heard Toad open it up and the conversation between him… and my worst nightmare: A hoard of reporters with permission to come inside and interrogate me. Are the stars determined not to let me find out what was in the basement? If so, they're doing a pretty good job.

Quite reluctantly, I walked slowly back to the entrance hall while hurriedly straightening my short blonde hair. The reporters were waiting like sharks anticipating their prey. I took a deep breath and stepped forward for the worst unofficial press conference I would have so far. But come to think of it, this is the only press conference I've had so far.

It was long. I'm sorry, but that's the only word I can think of to describe the whole ordeal. Oh, and painful, too. "Reporters!" I gasped after Father asked me how it went. "Interrogations! Endless!" I stammered. I would have nightmares for weeks, besides the one I had already had.

_I must get down to the basement _was my only thought as I ran down the basement stairs and into the cold, dank level of the castle that no one except servants ever went down to, and only when it was absolutely necessary. When I finally burst through the doors of the plumbing and pressure controls room, there was no one there. I could hear a faint buzzing in the background, though. When I listened closer, it morphed into a faint twinkling noise. I also noticed that there was a canvas on the ground, and that the hem of my dress was very wet.

The twinkling noise… what is that? I could still hear it twinkling faintly; it seemed to be coming from the canvas. I lifted the canvas to find…

An olive green thing closely resembling the shape of a video game controller. It appeared that you could set the date, time, and place anywhere within the Mushroom Kingdom. But it was obviously broken; stretching from the back of the controller was a frazzled half-wire. What was it and what did it attach to?

There was no doubt that the mysterious twinkling sound was _not_ coming from the controller.

All of a sudden, the gray brick wall swam before my eyes, and I was knocked off my feet by an unknown force. My purple dress was very wet now… what would everyone say? I wasn't even supposed to be down here anyway… But my biggest question was: where were Pietro and Lillian? They seemed to have disappeared off the face of World One!

What did this controller attach to? Was it somehow part of the Mystery Machine that Lillian and Pietro have disappeared with?

What was the ominous twinkling noise?

Why am I seeing and dreaming weird scenes?

To sum it all up: _What did I miss? The wall, I must be going crazy…_


	5. Deals Made

**Author's Note: For those of y'all who have never played or are not familiar with MarioKart DS or MarioKart Super Circuit, listen up! Peach Circuit is a real MarioKart track. It is mostly full of grass with one sharp turn several smaller turns, various speed boosts, and rows of item boxes. Peach's castle is in the background and the only things I've added are the stands packed with people and Toad Town nearby. You'll also notice that a MushroomKart steering wheel takes after a sideways Wii remote.**

**Luigi (past)**

The roar of the crowd could even be heard from in here! I was sitting in the garage of the MushroomKart track _Peach Circuit_, and the race was about to start. My palms were sweating and my feet were twitching randomly. This was the climatic finish of the Shell Cup; if I won first or second, I would have enough points to move up, with the some of the best racers in the Eight-Worlds, to the Banana Cup…

I reviewed the controls of my steering wheel in my head again, for unlike a regular car, a MushroomKart had controls on their steering wheel. There were 3 buttons on the left side, each pointing to one of the cardinal directions except for right, and there was also a button on the back, for drifting, accessed by your left index finger.

I brushed a stray strand of hair out of my eyes and slowly inched my Kart forward out of the garage, around the corner of the track, and to the starting line.

The announcer began to call out names in the order of our overall place, "In first place so far, Kreala the Koopa Troopa! In second, Luigi the Human! In third, Bavskin the Boo! In fourth…" the list went on and on as the announcer called out the names of the eight competitors. "This race is sponsored by Toadresa's Tea, a soothing afternoon drink to calm your nerves and relax your mind!"

I could sure have used some nerve-calming, mind-relaxing tea right then, because I couldn't take it any longer. I wiped the sweat off of my hands and brow and proceeded to look around the stands instead of listening to the announcer delay Lakitu's flying checkered flag even further. I could see Peach in her front row box seat and in her best pink dress, smiling and waving at people, but she had a faraway look on her face.

_She must be thinking about that snobby, conceited, Prince What's-His-Name she has to marry sometime soon_. I felt bad for Peach right then. She and Mario were made for one another.

As I further scanned the stands, I caught a glimpse of Mario, towards the top, sitting in front of two random kids. _He usually sits on the top row…_ but I pushed the wayward thought from my mind.

All of a sudden, Lakitu begins to wave his traffic light in front of my face. The announcer turns the volume up on his microphone to the point where I thought I would go deaf. Lakitu rises up on his cloud so that all of the racers, a variety of species, could see him, and begins the light countdown.

_The light was red. _I positioned my hands next to the buttons on the steering wheel and my feet on the pedals.

_The light turned yellow._ I revved up my engine and noticed a few other drivers do the same. I leaned forward in anticipation, my heart racing, like my Kart would be in a few short seconds...

_The light took on a new color… green._ The electric magnet at the bottom of my Kart that attached me to the ground was deprived of its power and my Kart shot forward in a perfect speed start.

The going was tough, even though Peach Circuit was a fairly simple track. I started out in third, but the poor top speed of my Kart slowed me down on the first straightaway. I reached the first curve in fifth, but as I turned a sharp curve one toad spun into the grass and had a tough time getting back on because of the mud.

I reached the first row of item boxes. I slammed into the first box I laid my eyes upon and the scrolling music began. I looked into the little compartment where my item would appear and saw… a banana peel.

I was disappointed, but banana peels could be used strategically…

I noticed the toad that had spun out into the mud on the last curve coming up on my tail. I used my left thumb to press the left button on my steering wheel, and the banana disappeared from sight. I knew that it was dragging in the dirt behind my Kart, attached to by a similar magnet that held my Kart to the starting line at the beginning of the race. All of a sudden, I slammed on the brakes. The toad was shocked and tried to slam on her brakes also, but not quick enough. She crashed into the back of my Kart, or rather, the banana peel stuck to the back.

I was already revving up and on the road by the time she regained control of her Kart. I was back in third place at the end of the first lap.

I hit another item box and the scrolling music ended to reveal a red koopa shell. _Yes!_ Red koopa shells were always a plus. I hummed the eight-bit music of Peach Circuit as I shifted my thumb toward the top button to throw the shell, when I suddenly registered that the world was spinning 'round and 'round… and that my red koopa shell had been destroyed. More than slightly angry, I looked up to see the toad girl speeding on past me.

_Toad girl, you're going down!_

I sped off and hit another item box. As the annoying scrolling music pounded my ears, the toad girl was taking out Kreala the koopa troopa with a thundercloud.

_Perfect, now we're first and second._

The third and last lap began, the crowd near the finish line roared, and the music coming from speakers in my Kart sped up and changed key. Lakitu waved a black sign in my face that said "Third Lap!" as if I didn't already know.

I was neck and neck with the toad girl, and battling it out however possible. My poor top speed took a toll on my ability to keep up with her, but I had a green koopa shell in reserve. I shot it and she spun out. I found myself in first place.

_First place!_

I cruised along the course until the last stretch, when the toad girl caught up to me again.

_Hey wait a second… I don't need first place, just second, and if she gets first, then I'll still move on._ I began to relax, when all of a sudden I heard a steady roar coming up from behind us. I quickly glanced in my handy-dandy rearview mirrors to see Bavskin the boo approaching, in bullet bill form. He soon zoomed by and took first.

Dang.

I weighed my options; the finish line was a mere one hundred feet away and the toad girl was far closer to it than I. To claim second place, the place I needed to move on to the next grand prix, I would need to use an item fast. But I had nothing.

All of a sudden, I saw an item box, a single, stranded, lone item box. Putting the petal to the metal, I used all of the little speed my puny Kart had to move toward the box, paying attention to nothing else. Unfortunately, the toad girl seemed to read my mind and got to it first.

But then a divine act of the stars occurred. As I neared closer to the box I made a shocking conclusion based on two things: One, that the question mark within the box was upside down, and two, that red was the most prominent of the box's many colors.

And that the toad girl didn't seem to notice either of these things and was speeding toward the box at an alarming rate.

As she spun out, I shot past her and across the finish line, claiming second.

The crowd roared, Lakitu waved his checkered flag in my face, and I circled a victory lap as the other racers finished. The toad girl got third place. As I completed the victory lap I looked in the stands and saw Peach with a small smile on her face and a wink in my direction (nothing more, as a princess she couldn't show favoritism) and Mario jumping up and down for joy and punching the air, making a complete fool of himself.

I stopped my Kart at the finish line and laughed; the only people doing an even more excited victory dance were the two kids I had noted earlier, who were sitting in the row behind Mario. I caught my breath, for a second I thought that the girl was going to fall over the edge of the stands in her glee, but the boy caught her just in time.

The girl had a strange sense of importance to me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Perhaps she reminded me of my long-time crush, Daisy, Peach's very best friend.

I pushed the alien thoughts about the teenaged girl out of my ecstatic mind and turned my Kart toward Lakitu and several Magikoopas, who were using magic to quickly set up the winner's pedestals.

I received my silver trophy and I was more elated than I had ever been in my career as a racer. After the ceremony, I ran to and embraced my brother.

"You did it Bro! You really did it!" he exclaimed. We shouted and whooped, but Mario stopped abruptly when he turned to see Daisy giggling in our direction. Embarrassed, we left the crowded track and headed to the garage to see the damage done to my tiny Kart. There was always some damage, never enough to make a huge difference, but when Mario saw it, he shook his head and muttered something I couldn't decipher.

"Gee Bro, you need a new Kart!" he said, clearly this time. I looked closer and realized he was right, for the controls were gunked up, the top speed was terrible, and more things seemed to need fixing than ever before. I sighed.

"You can borrow the _Shooting Star_ if you like…" he added. I was horrified.

"Mario, you know I can't do that! The _Shooting Star _is your masterpiece! It would get too damaged in a race!" I protested, shocked that my brother had really offered to let me borrow the _Shooting Star_, the _Shooting Star_, the best flying machine/car/battle tank in the Eight-Worlds! Come to think about it, it was the only flying machine/car/battle tank in the Eight-Worlds… The _Shooting Star _was so fast, so streamlined, that it could win any race easily. Its golden frame had been built by hand by Mario, with the help of Lubba, the large, purple, luma mechanic, and Professor E. Gadd.

"But, but…" I stuttered, "The _Shooting Star _is so well known! The officials will think I'm cheating, I'll have an unfair advantage…"

"Luigi", he replied in a commanding tone that made me stop whining fairly quickly, "You barely scraped through _this_ grand prix, do you really think you can place in the next one, against better racers, with the Kart you have?"

I was silent.

"Bro," he continued in a softer tone, "you know how much money we have…"

Great, now I felt guilty.

"We can't get you a brand new Kart, and let's face it, the Kart you have is scum. As for the officials, there's nothing a little paint and a re-namin' can't solve!" he straightened up. "Do we have a deal?"

"Deal," I replied quietly, feeling better after Mario's illogical reasoning.

Mario left to find Peach, but I stayed in the garage to put up my Kart, which would soon be replaced by the fastest vehicle in the Eight-Worlds. All of a sudden I heard a quiet voice speak up from behind me,

"Hey, you're pretty good. Thanks for the challenge."

I whipped around and dropped my tools with a clatter to see the toad girl standing behind me, bronze trophy in hand. "Um, you're welcome," I stuttered, surprised that she had come to acknowledge me. She turned and walked away, her large horn-rimmed glasses were still visible from behind.

**Kamek****(past)**

"How could the prophecy be so vague?" roared King Bowser, angry at the obviously failing test results. The King and I were viewing the princess Daisy Sarasa's test results, and it was fairly obvious she was not the eighth Star Child. I gazed at the tablet pillaged by our minions from a pyramid in Sarasaland, which contained the Prophecy of the Star Children. Bowser and I had identified the first seven, but the last one proved to be the most difficult.

"The prophecy clearly states the child will be younger than the rest and possess the extraordinary power to alter previous events. The prophecy also states that their other title shall be 'Child of Adventure', Sir. I'm not sure if the princess of Sarasaland holds any of those qualities," I said, much to the dismay of King Bowser, "We must keep looking."

"We have been looking for this kid for years, Kamek!" exclaimed King Bowser. He began to pace across the tower's stone floor and continued, "I don't know where to continue! There must be millions of children in the Eight-Worlds younger than the other Star Children! We cannot test them all…" King Bowser stopped pacing abruptly and sat down in an elaborate chair, flustered.

"Perhaps there is another way…" I trailed off.

"Another way we could do what?" Bowser sat up in the chair.

"To test the children of the Eight-Worlds, Sir," I replied, still skeptical of my own idea, "My crystal ball shows the powerful aura around a Star Child. Perhaps I could amass a larger lens, a larger lens that could scan entire towns if attached to the bottom of the _Flame Flyer_, your strongest airship."

Bowser was silent for what seemed like a very long time, but eventually replied, "It could work… At this point I am willing to try almost anything. How long will the building of this lens take?"

"About three weeks, Sire,"

"Perfect, Kamek, but still, be quick about it!" King Bowser shouts as he leaves the tower.

I was a magician and a fortune-teller, but even without using my sixth, magical, fortune-telling sense, I could feel the fate of the Eight-Worlds changing as King Bowser left the tower. Something was going to happen, for I could feel it in my bones.

**Melody**

"Melody, would you please come down here?" Mother called up the spiral staircase leading to the royal living quarters. I had been changing out of my very wet dress into a dry one, and had stowed the mysterious olive green video game controller in a shoebox at the top of my closet.

"I'm coming!" I shouted back out of the crack in my door. Soon, I followed my promise and walked quickly down the steps into the main room, where various musicians on a temporary stage were staring over their music stands at Toadette as if she were some musical goddess. Mother was standing at the door, watching the spectacle, so I joined her.

"That young woman has talent!" Mother whispered into my ear. Indeed Toadette did have much undiscovered talent, for she was playing conductor with several musicians who had been a pro at their instrument for as long as I had even been alive, yet listened to Toadette actively, and the orchestra seemed to get better every time she would wave her arms with a certain rhythm from her tiptoes on the podium.

Mother's soft voice awakened me from my thoughts, "It's nice to see her rediscovering her passion."

Yes, yes it was… When the song was over, Mother and I clapped loudly and cheerfully, and Toadette bowed in respect.

I retired to my room to read my book, acting like Pietro for about an hour, when I looked at the time. The old-fashioned cukoo clock on my bedroom wall chimed six times, and Pietro and Lillian still weren't back yet from wherever they were. All of a sudden I looked out the window, and a strange sight lay before my eyes: Toad Town's streets were crowded with people, and the old MushroomKart stadium was erupting in cheers.

As soon as the image came, it left, and I was back to feeling anxious and scared for my friends.

**Pietro**

Something was wrong. I could feel it, but I couldn't put a finger on what it was… I could feel a certain amount of electricity in the air, like something was altered greatly, something that shouldn't be altered. No one else seemed to notice; Uncle Luigi just won second place in the race, and Father, who I still can't believe was sitting right in front of us, rushed off to go congratulate him.

I diverted my thoughts away from this odd feeling and focused more on the other racers. A purple-spotted toad had crossed the checkered line shortly after Uncle Luigi, followed by Kreala the koopa troopa and the other racers.

I could also see Mother amidst the ecstatic crowd, but she too, looked disturbed and disoriented. I soon saw the cause of her frustration: A guy with a deep tan and a long black ponytail was clearly giving her a hard time. He was standing in the box reserved for royalty talking to Mother and she clearly did not want him around.

"Hey Lillian, look at him!" I whispered (or tried, the rambunctious celebration obscured my hearing). Mother and the guy were fighting now, and we weren't the only people to notice them. Several ambassadors, senators, and wealthy toads (who got the better seats that tended to be close to the royal box) couldn't help but stare.

"We have to go help!" Lillian said more loudly. The rich people were whispering to others, and soon half of the stadium was talking anxiously.

Father was nowhere in sight.

Before I had a chance to reply, Lillian took off through the crowd and I had no choice but to follow. As I pushed through the crowd and ran down the steps, I couldn't help but to wonder who the guy was. Mother was a very patient and kind person, and I had _never_, in my entire life, seen her so angry. He looked like he came from the beaches of World Four, or Delfino Island. The latter would be more likely.

I finally caught up to Lillian and grabbed her arm. "Lillian!" I said, "How would we help? We're not supposed to reveal ourselves to people who know us! Or, _will_ know us… What would we do?"

Lillian contemplated that for a few seconds, and then suggested eavesdropping. I sighed in slight disbelief, but the curiosity to know who the guy was overcame me and we moved closer to the box.

"…In five weeks, Sweet Peach!" the mystery tan guy said. It was obvious from his accent that he was from Delfino Island. I listened closer to Mother's response:

"I'm aware. Listen, I'll… I'll…" she stuttered reluctantly, "I'll make a deal. Toadsworth wants us to go out sometime before the wedding, so if you will stop calling me those… those names, then I won't yell at you. I'm free on Friday evening. Do we have a deal?"

Mystery tan guy grinned. I was liking him less and less and less… Who does he think he is to control my mother? Or, _future _mother… I realized how delicate this whole back-in-time balance was: One wrong move and we might not exist; Father already noticed us. A gasp and exclamation from Lillian took me by surprise, and all of a sudden I understood a whole lot more what was going on,

"She's in an _arranged marriage_ Pietro!"

Well that sure explains a lot… I had always felt bad for Melody and her predicament, and grateful that I would not have to go through the same thing, but I had never considered that the rule would apply to _all_ princesses, and Mother had not always been a queen.

How _did_ Mother meet Father? If I was positive that the man sitting in front of us was Father, and mystery tan guy was Peach's fiancé, than _how did she get out of it?_ Where does my father come into this story? Because I have no idea who that guy is… Lillian seemed to be wondering the same thing.

**Remember to vote on the poll!**


	6. A Prince and a King

**Author's Note: The adventure segment begins! Now, this story will finally have some motivation, you will get some questions answered, and upon request of the mighty reviewers (or PMers, more like, what's up with that?), some more Peach vs. Esteban drama. However, this will be the most Peach vs. Esteban-ish chapter for a long while. I need to get on with the plot! Enjoy! -Kat**

**Lillian**

Pietro and I were sitting on a park bench, exhausted. We had asked all over town for information about a bandit who could've stolen the controller and it was getting close to dark. The only lead we had was a guy named Waluigi.

But why _would_ a bandit want the controller anyway? How did he find us? We were in the middle of nowhere!

I turned my attention back toward Toad Town. Most people who had come here from afar were staying in the hotels or boarding houses overnight and filling them up fast, so it looked like we were headed back to Yoshi's place. Without the crowds in the streets, Toad Town's quaintness shone through and I marveled at how organized and beautiful it was. The streets were a white cobblestone, most roofs of the buildings were red, none were more than two stories tall, and there were gardens and parks around every corner.

_A town can change a lot in… uh… however far back in time we are…_

"Well, do you want to head back to Yoshi's?" I said. Pietro nodded in agreement.

We started to walk. Most streets were quiet as most Toad Townians had gone to bed, and the sky was getting dimmer by the minute. We were nearing the east side of town, where the exit to the forest, and the warp pipe, is, when all of a sudden Pietro pulls me into a dark alley in one sudden movement, so sudden that I topple over into a puddle of damp, muddy water.

"Thanks a lot, cousin!" I say as I stood up, rubbing the water off of the seat of my jeans. Pietro quickly shushes me and motions for me to get behind a trash can, with a panicked gleam in his blue eyes.

The alley between two white and red shops wasn't as dark and derelict as one from, say, Mushroom City (or so I've heard, if anyone caught me going down one I'd be metaphorically dead by now), but it was creepy nonetheless. Pietro and I hid behind a trash can motionless. You could have heard a pin drop. I was starting to think if whatever we were hiding from was figment of Pietro's, who was practically scared of his own shadow, imagination.

I finally whispered, "What are we hiding from?" to Pietro as quietly as I could, but my naturally loud voice got the better of me, and by the time I got to "hiding", Pietro had clapped his hand over my mouth.

But it was no good, for whatever we had been hiding from heard us, and they were not Pietro's imagination.

Two Magikoopa jumped out from the shadows, one at each end of the alley, and shot a spell at each of us. The world went black very suddenly.

_Several hours later…_

The world was spinning around and around and everything was fuzzy. I drifted in and out of a state of sense and no sense; aware of nothing but the roughness of the curved surface I was laying on. I woke up finally to find I was sitting in a canvas bag, in which it was very dark, and that Pietro was not in there with me. I sat up, only to slump on the bottom again, for I was dizzy and discombobulated. I became vaguely aware that the bottom was curved, and that I was swaying in a breeze.

_I must be hanging in the air!_

My short-lived excitement was replaced quickly by dread. Where was Pietro and why was I here? How long was I unconscious and where were these Magikoopa taking us… me…?

Air was short in the canvas bag, and all too soon I was hyperventilating. Desperate for oxygen, I removed the bobby pin from my hair and stabbed it through the bottom of the canvas bag, sending a very small breeze up into my tiny prison. I relaxed and tried to think, tried to recap like Pietro would. I sighed, knowing that only this morning Pietro and I had eaten pancakes and sausage at Yoshi's house… Food, I haven't eaten in ages! My stomach growled at the mere thought of pancakes and sausages.

_I just love that breeze…_ I thought, trying to take my mind off of food. The chilly air sent chills up my spine and goose bumps up my arms and legs. I went to retrieve my bobby pin, which I had left at the bottom of the sack. However, when I shifted position so that my arms could reach it, my heart seemed to skip a beat.

My bobby pin had fallen down the hole, which was growing larger by the second. By further observation down the tear in the bag, I realized that I was being carried by a Magikoopa's broomstick at least three hundred feet in the air.

I scrambled for something to hold onto as the tear consumed the bag, but thankfully, another Magikoopa, whose broom was holding a sack which must've contained Pietro, cried out just as I thought I would fall through the torn-in-half bag.

I caught Magikoopa number two's broom just in time and felt a wash of relief. Magikoopa number two kind of looked at me funny, but seemed to shake off whatever he was thinking. The first Magikoopa, the one who had been holding my bag on his broom, magically repaired the bag and motioned for me to get inside it. I wanted to rebel, but decided against it. If these two could knock me out, then they could probably do worse. Besides, I was hanging off the edge of a broom, so they held a lot of power over me right now. But before the first Magikoopa sealed the canvas bag shut, I caught a glimpse of my surroundings. The moon was at its full height, illuminating the black rock, volcanoes, and dead trees of the Darklands, World Eight.

**Princess Peach (past)**

Daisy's muttering of several curse words (some of which most certainly should probably not be uttered by a princess) somehow made me feel better in this dire situation. One thought ran over and over through my head as I prepared for a very awkward date with His Royal Selfishness Prince Esteban: _What the - was I thinking, making that promise? I don't even know if he'll keep his end of the deal!_ Shoot, Daisy's language is starting to rub off on me…

"Daze, please stop that," I said.

"Oh, sorry Peach, but this… Ugh! He's so… so…"

"Arrogant? Selfish?" I finished her sentence.

Daisy had come over to Mushroom Castle to "help me get ready" (or at least that was the excuse she planted with Toadsworth), but she would accompany me to the door of La Toad, a posh restaurant in the heart of Mushroom City. It sat high on the top of the tallest tower and revolved slowly while large clear glass windows draped with red velvet curtains allowed the diner to look upon the sights of the Mushroom City cityscape in its dark, colorful splendor. It would be a nice place, but I knew I was in for a very long night…

I applied my makeup very slowly, a futile attempt to further delay the inevitable, and indeed the inevitable came.

"Well Peach, it's half past six. We should be going as it takes a while to get to Mushroom City…" Daisy sighed. I nodded solemnly in reluctant response.

A ride in Daisy's car, a bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle, would have been fun. On a normal day, if we were just taking a scenic drive through the Shroom Mountains, we would have talked, laughed, and enjoyed a nice break from the duties of royalty. But this was not a normal night; Daisy was driving me toward my doom. I should be grateful for the ride, Esteban had offered to drive me, but I had politely refused. Instead, he would drive me home.

All too soon, I saw the bright cityscape of Mushroom City gleaming in the far distance. I felt sick. Daisy tried to make feeble conversation, but an awkward silence ensued.

Finally, she said, "If you ever need me, I'll be shopping on the second floor."

I smiled. I could not ask for a better friend.

After that, the journey was short, but somewhat merry (only somewhat, given the circumstances). We soon took the exit off of the freeway and into the crisscrossing streets of Mushroom City and parked in a parking garage near a tall and stately skyscraper.

Bright lights and the noises of cars and taxis and the bustling of people would have made the city air enjoyable, but not tonight, my stomach was sick with dread.

"Good luck!" called Daisy as I approached the door of the skyscraper, "I'll be on the second floor!"

Feeling gratitude toward my friend, but stomach churning as I walked toward the elevator of the building in the very back, I stepped inside. Daisy took the stairs, leaving me to shoot twenty floors up toward my doom.

The elevator doors opened, and I stepped inside the grand La Toad, but stepped back in awe. This place was _beyond_ gourmet… Everything was covered in deep red velvet, a string quartet played on an elevated stage, all the men were wearing suits or tuxedos, and all of the women looked their very best in elegant dresses and glittering gowns. Waiters, also dressed in suits, carried sizzling hot food from another elevator close by. A golden chandelier hung on the ceiling, a glittering masterpiece. Round tables dotted the red carpet. Most were by the window, but those scared of heights were seated in the center or near the musicians. Of course, the real attraction was the crystal clear window, which stretched all the way around the circular restaurant. I instantly thought that I should've worn something nicer, rather than just my normal pink gown.

One of the suit-clad toad waiters stepped up to me, quickly bowed to the princess of his kingdom, and said quietly in a respectful tone, "Do you have a reservation?"

I did not, but I was sure Esteban did. All awe for the restaurant inside me vanished at the thought of him as I replied, "I am meeting Prince Delfino." The waiter nodded and led me to one of the tables by the window where Esteban sat, grinning like he knew all that there ever was to be known.

"I'm glad you could make it!" he said, still grinning that stupid grin. He pulled out my chair so that I could sit down, and the waiter left to assist a rich couple who had just come out of the elevator. He was wearing a suit, like many of the men here.

We sat in silence at first, but Esteban soon broke it.

"I do wish to put our differences aside so that we may… uh… tolerate each other," he said. At first, I was suspicious. This was too good to be true… was he hoping to win me over? To get something out of me? He continued, "Listen, we get married in five weeks, as I pointed out at the race earlier today, and yet you don't seem happy! I am not entirely sure why that is and…" he paused, "I would like you to tell me so that I can fix whatever went wrong."

I, very quietly and discreetly so that Esteban wouldn't see, slipped my phone out of my pocket and began to text Daisy.

Still texting under the table, I replied in a cool, calm voice, "Who did you talk to for romance help?"

Esteban looked taken aback slightly, but he was undeterred. The second battle of the day had begun. Or at least, in my eye it had, in Esteban's, it had not.

He said again, "Please, Peach, if I am to be your husband for the rest of our lives, then I need to know what is wrong."

I gave up. I was tired beyond imagination and stressed just a tad further. I replied, "You do not appreciate my feelings, Prince Delfino. You only seem to care about yourself."

"I deeply regret it. I'm sorry, Peach." He said. He did look genuinely sorry, but I still wasn't ready to believe him.

"After all that you've done, I cannot forgive you!" I said strongly. I finished my text to Daisy and sent it.

A toad waiter walks up to our table and began to take our drink orders. Ugh… why must time go so slowly when you want to be anywhere but on a date with your selfish fiancé? At least I had Daisy to talk to, so I supposed this situation could be worse.

Candlelight illuminated the table. My mind wandered from La Toad as I thought of all of the people I would rather be here with. I could be enjoying a girls' night out with Daisy, or just eating and talking with the whole Mario crew: Mario, Luigi, Daisy, Yoshi, and me… I would even invite Wario and Waluigi if I could avoid this.

All of a sudden, my mind wandered to another possibility and my body froze up completely. Esteban seemed to notice this and asked what was wrong.

"It's nothing…" I lied, but he continued to look at me funny for the next few minutes. I found his gaze disturbing. The waiter brought our drinks and asked us for our choice of an appetizer. Glad for the excuse not to talk to Esteban, I ordered.

My phone vibrated with a reply text from Daisy. It read: _Texting under the table are you? :)_ I smiled and began to reply to her. Esteban talked, mostly about himself, until our appetizer arrived and the waiter refilled our drinks. I mostly smiled and nodded the whole time, all the while talking to Daisy. Our main course arrived shortly. Delicious and full of flavor and texture, the food filled in the cracks Esteban had dug.

After the meal was over, he drove me home without creating any conflict. I got out of the car at the Mushroom Castle and he drove off without trying anything stupid, like I was sure he was going to do. However, he may or may not have noticed the bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle tailing us the whole time.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
The next morning…_

"So… he didn't do _anything_ funny?" asked Daisy quizzically, sitting on my pink bedspread at around ten in the morning, questioning me about last night's ordeal.

"No, he didn't… Of course, he talked about himself the whole time, but that's Esteban. He didn't do anything _really_ weird though... Do you think he's really sorry?" I said in return.

"Not a chance,"

I didn't reply, or even shake my head yes or no. I wasn't completely ready to forgive and forget, but I was nearing the line. All might have been well, if a certain red-capped plumber hadn't kept cropping up in my thoughts…

**Pietro**

_Stay calm… stay calm… try to think! I shouldn't have gotten us into this…_ Lillian and I were sitting in a dark and dingy dungeon cell in an equally dark castle in the Eighth World. But the mystery of who had kidnapped us and why still stood. _We just __had__ to find out what the mystery machine was… and now we're stuck here with no way to get back!_ Frustrated with myself, I slumped against the grimy wall, which turned out to be a bad decision, because several bugs skittered their way around me when their hiding place was disturbed. I stood up again and began to pace the small cell. Lillian was minding her own business, or at least I thought she was. She had said nothing since we came here.

Suddenly, an armored, hammer-wielding koopa troopa opened the squeaky cell door and motioned for us to get out.

_Yes!_ I was elated then, but my joy was soon to be crushed.

The koopa placed our arms behind our backs and handcuffed them into place. He led us up out of the dungeon and into a magnificent red-carpeted hall. This place was not as dirty and grimy as the dungeons, and if not for the battalions of troops walking in various directions, taking orders from koopas that looked much like our captor, its splendor would have rivaled Lightning Palace. Lightning Palace (of which I have only seen pictures) was a breathtaking sight to behold as kingdom government seat of Nimbus Land. This place was more like a fortress. I wondered again why someone would want to kidnap us as we were led through high-ceilinged halls, up grand spiral staircases, and passed several eerie bubbling lava pits… Nobody knew that we were here except for Yoshi, Lillian's enemy Officer No-Loitering, and the several people we had questioned about Waluigi. We even gave false names to everyone but Yoshi! I was Billy McDonald and Lillian was my cousin, Jess.

Was I wrong to trust Yoshi?

At last we entered a hall like a cathedral, but not before the koopa knocked on the heavy oak doors, and a booming voice that sounded as if it belonged to someone very large and powerful told us to come in.

I caught my breath. Lava streamed and fell from rocks everywhere, but a clear path laden with red carpet and surrounded by none other than a lava _tunnel_ led to a throne for the largest, most vicious looking, spike-adorned koopa I had ever seen or will ever see. It was almost as if we had entered a cavern full of lava geysers, red carpet, and spikes (shining metal spikes covered every surface that was not covered in lava or red carpet). The ceiling was made completely out of enchanted lava, bubbling and flowing. It did not collapse, but every so often a drop or two would fall onto the red carpet, burning a pin-sized hole in it.

The koopa spoke in that same booming voice, "Thank you Colonel, for bringing the captives. I would ask that you please leave."

"Yes King Bowser, Sir." The armored colonel bowed to Bowser and left the cavern, closing the oak doors behind him making an eerie thud.

"So… I suppose that it's safe to assume you know why you are here?" Bowser said. After neither of us gave a response he said again, but louder, "Stop cowering! You know where she is so come out and say it!" Bowser got up from his throne and stood, surprisingly tall, over us.

Lillian gathered up her courage and spoke, "I do not know what you are talking about, Sir. You see, we have only been in the Mushroom Kingdom for a day or so."

I had never been more scared for Lillian; Bowser looked murderous as he retorted angrily, "You even share the same GENES! Where is the princess?" I saw what he meant then. He wanted to know where the princess at the time (Mother) was. But how did he know that we share the same genes?

"She always spoke of a cousin," said Bowser (much more calmly) as if he had read my mind, "and you were coming to visit. Do not play dumb with me!" I exchanged a look with Lillian and we both agreed on the same plan to get us out of here alive: Go with the flow.

"Um, yes, she's my cousin and I was coming for a visit," said Lillian nervously, "but we were heading back to where we were staying and two Magikoopa captured us!"

"I know about the Magikoopa. I sent them. Who is he, anyway?" Bowser motioned toward me.

"Um, he's my… other cousin!" I nodded as Lillian continued with this. It was after all, true.

"So, as for the princess, where would she be right now?" asked Bowser. He was much calmer now and he sat back down in the throne.

"She's on a date with her fiancé," I said, finally daring to speak up.

Bowser nodded, "Yes, I suppose that is pretty soon…" Now he looked troubled, as if an evil plan to stop the wedding somehow was brewing in the depths of his brain. He looked out into the lava-covered wall for a few minutes, with his head in his hand, and finally seemed to remember that we were there.

"Colonel, come here!" After the colonel opened the door, Bowser said, "Take these two back to the dungeons, and after you do that, fetch me Kamek."

The colonel nodded and escorted us out of the cavern. Halfway down the spiral steps from the room, however, he stopped us and asked in a surprisingly small voice, "I'm not supposed to ask, but… What did he want from you guys?"

"He just wanted to know the whereabouts of Qu-, of _Princess_ Peach," I said.

The koopa looked puzzled, and it was a little while before he replied, "He _knows_ where Peach is. He has spies all over the Mushroom Kingdom that report daily where she is… But anyway, it's not my business," and said nothing else from the cavern to the dungeons.

I wondered vaguely why a soldier of an evil tyrant would know my mother on first-name terms.

**PLEASE READ THE BELOW!**

**Okay guys, this was supposed to be updated two weeks ago. I even had it _ready_ two weeks ago. CHECK MY PROFILE FOR ALL ANOUNCEMENTS! If something is updated this late, there's usually a good reason why. The editing system gave me "error type two" every time I would click "edit". I'm sorry if you've been impatient with me, but if something seems out of the ordinary, check my profile. If I can't even get to "edit" in the first place, I can't put these little newsflashes at the bottom of the most recent chapter either.**  
**  
Well, there's my little rant. Check the profile, OK? -Kat  
**


	7. Stowaways and Secret Caves

**Some aspects of Super Mario 64 and its DS remake start to show up in this chapter. If you've never played or are not familiar with SM64, search it on the Mario wiki. The first paragraph will do****. Enjoy! -Kat **

**By the way, the Colonel is a koopatrol, in case that helps you picture him better.**

**Melody**

That night, I went back to the basement. The adults had realized that Pietro and Lillian were missing, and Father had just sent some guards to look for them in town.

I knew their disappearance had something to do with the machine, but I couldn't find out what it was and where they had gone until I knew what the machine _was_ in the first place.

_Think, Melody…_ What kind of machine would be so important that the King and Queen would have to hide it like that? Either it was some sort of weapon of mass destruction (that would explain why the authorities were unhappy) or something with magical properties.

It was more likely the latter.

So how did they disappear? The machine must have warped them somewhere… but where? They could be anyplace in the Eight-Worlds!

I looked at the olive controller resting in my hand as I descended the stairs in to the basement for the second time that day. Was this a part of the machine that was somehow left behind?

This confirms that the machine had magical properties, alright… Normal machines don't just have random parts falling off unless they're _really_ broken. That also confirms the machine travels, but how? Machines can't just fly through stone walls and up out of the moat either.

I burst in the door of the plumbing and pressure controls room. It was just like I had left it, with an inch or two of water covering the floor (but that was always there), a wet canvas strewn across the foundation, and my flashlight resting against the wall.

However, there was one difference: the mystery twinkling noise was absent.

I began to walk the room, listening for the twinkling as hard as I could. But in my concentration, I was not watching where I was going. I tripped on a fold in the canvas and splashed head first into the water. I stood up, coughed, and sputtered. Ugh… nasty water…

But wait, something was moving underneath me! I was sinking, fast.

The cold stone of the plumbing and pressure controls room was changing before my very eyes. I ran to the other side of the room and watched as the stone floor sunk into what should have been hard dirt, revealing steps down into a shallow pit. The water drained into a hole, a gaping blackness revealed. The floor was perfectly dry. The water in the hole rippled like there was an unseen force behind it, methodically bobbing up and down, shaping the surface of the water. The stone made no sound throughout the whole process, which I found disturbing. But I was secretly thankful; all the creaks, groans, and moans something like this normally would make (but could I even use the word "normally"?) would attract the attention of the King and Queen. _That_ was the last thing I wanted right now. What I wanted right now were some answers.

I was breathing heavily, clutching the wall. I dared to step forward, when I realized that in my surprise, I had left the controller near the water's edge. I took a deep breath, and descended the stairs into the dip in the floor. The stone floor was cold and wet, and I slipped on it and fell the rest of the way. Luckily for me, there were only about five steps into the shallow pit, and I only succeeded in getting myself even wetter than I already was, rather than hurt.

I didn't bother standing up again, but instead, inched my way across the wet floor to the controller. Why did I even bother going back for this thing anyway? Why is it so important to me? And _why does this pit of water seem so ominous?_

I reached the controller, took it, and began to crawl back to the stairs. But I looked back and saw that the rippling water seemed to be… calling me. I felt a powerful urge to look inside it. So, having no common sense at all, I move back towards it and stare into the empty blackness.

Before I know it, I've fallen in.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid…_

But I don't hit the bottom. No, I keep falling, falling for ages, months, years, it seemed. I don't know how long I fell; time itself seemed to have stopped. The controller slipped out of my hands as I continued to cut through water, as if a strong gravity was pulling me hard, determined for me to reach the bottom. There was no need to breathe. The walls of the bottomless pit changed from stone to dirt, and I finally landed, softly, on a dirt floor.

I looked up, and saw that the pit I had fallen down had disappeared. I looked around. I was lying, sopping wet (my dress was forever ruined), on a shelf about two feet off of the ground. Torches in brackets lined the wall of the cave I had landed in. Two tunnels, one leading left and one leading right, were the only way out, it seemed, but there was not enough light to tell where exactly they led.

I stood up, and weighed my options. I must have fallen down a warp zone of some sort, and come out in a cave far below the castle. I needed to get back up to the surface, and the only way to do that was to follow one of the tunnels.

Which path was the better option? Was it the left tunnel, or the one on the right? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter…

I walked slowly down the one on the left, but stopped when I came to a pit even more bottomless than the pit of water back in the basement. I could faintly see land on the other side, but it was shrouded in shadow and looked several yards away (much too far for me to even _try_ to jump). I stepped back, and walked down the other one.

**Lillian**

The colonel's words had shaken me thoroughly. When Bowser finds out we gave him information about the wrong princess, he'll be furious! And we'll be in some hot water (or should I say, hot lava…)! At first, this whole "back-in-time" thing had semed like a fun little day trip (besides my being knocked out during the time traveling itself), but now… our lives were in danger.

Pietro too, was worried. He was pacing the length of the cell, saying nothing.

Finally, an idea comes to mind. But it's so adventurous, so daring, so _utterly insane_ that I don't dare speak it. But Pietro reads my face, and asks,

"What's wrong?"

My stomach is churning already and my throat is dry when I say in return, "We have to get out of here. We have to find Waluigi and the controller and go home."

Pietro nods, and says, to my astonishment, "Great minds think alike. I was thinking the exact same thing." There was a long pause.

All of a sudden, a familiar voice breaks it.

"Ah… so we all have great minds, huh?"

Pietro yelps and whips around, his nerves getting the better of him, to see the speaker: the Colonel. The Colonel opened the cell door with minimal squeaking and stowed the keys in his koopa armor.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!" he says, motioning for us to walk outside.

Pietro and I don't know what to say. Can we trust this guy? We had already been tipped off upon once by Yoshi… To trust a soldier of Bowser would be suicide. He seems to read our mind.

"Come on… I'm all you've got right now."

Well I supposed he was right, and stepped outside the door. Pietro hesitates, and then nervously follows.

"Where to?" I said. The Colonel motioned toward the door of the dungeon and began to stride over there, his metal boots making a clanking noise against the stone floor. I walk closely behind, but Pietro lags, walking slowly. Something seems to be troubling him.

We walk down the stone halls of Bowser's fortress, but taking a different route than we did to the throne room. The halls start to get wider, the red carpet disappears, and other troops are present, especially Magikoopa and winged koopa troopas.

Something startles Pietro. He motions toward a wall, and what I see makes my eyes round with astonishment: A great glass wall replaces the stone, and what seems like hundreds of paratroopas are working in harmony to build a monstrous ship. It looked like a sea vessel, but the wings attached to the side told me otherwise. Its frame was only half complete, and another office-holding koopa was barking orders at the soldiers.

The Colonel walked faster.

Two great doors, made of solid steel with bolts the size of my palm loom before us as we turned a corner. They stretched up to the ceiling, which was as tall as the tallest skyscraper of Mushroom City.

With an earsplitting creak and a bone-rattling groan, the doors open and a sight lay before us that I would remember for my whole life:

Orders streamed across a room as gigantic as two whole towns and several completed ships were parked in rows. Thousands of paratroopas and magikoopa flew across the room, loading one monstrous ship with cargo in crates as tall as me. It took several paratroopas just to carry one. I looked up, the ceiling had opened to reveal a moonless night with wispy black clouds floating across endless blackness. Lightning flashed, but thunder was never heard.

The Colonel pulls us behind two crates, similar to the way Pietro did in that dark alleyway that seemed so far from here. I fall over again. Pietro does his best to conceal his laughter.

I huff and squat behind the crate, peering over the top at the scene. I look next to me at the Colonel, wondering what we were supposed to do next. We crawled behind an immense pyramid of crates, now quite far from the door, and the Colonel starts to whisper instructions.

"It is very important that we are _not seen_. Is that clear?" We nodded. "The paratroops start by carrying the crates at the top of this pyramid, and work their way down. Crates have various things in them, and some are not filled up all the way. The Koopa King prefers his shipments to the Territories to be organized. Find two half-full crates. There is not enough space to fit both of you." His instructions were very clear and short. The Colonel kept glancing upwards, where the winged koopas were starting to carry the crates from the top to the pyramid, as if one would suddenly cry out, and alert other troops of our presence.

So we did. Pietro's crate was halfway full of some bright-red apples, and mine contaned a burlap sack filled with something lumpy.

The Colonel continued, "This freighter goes to the farthest Territory of the Darklands, Kharak. All shipments have to come through Bowser Castle first, so be sure to get off the ship somehow at Kharak, or you'll end up back here."

"Wait," said Pietro, "You make it sound like you're not coming with us!"

"No, I'm not. You're on your own from here."

What? I felt betrayed, but the paratroopas started to move the crates closer to us, so we gave one last look at him and hopped into our respective boxes. I always knew he was a scoundrel. But then again, he'd given us safe passage to a place far from here, though the Mushroom Kingdom was thousands of miles away… But that's adventure! Adventure is being spontaneous, always on the move.

I wondered what I was lying on top of. The paratroops had long since loaded my crate onto the freighter (and hopefully Pietro's too), and the gentle hum of what must be engines had put me to sleep. Now, my muscles were horribly sore from sleeping on top of something very spiky.

I rolled over onto my stomach (a bad idea) and looked for an opening in the canvas. My clumsiness, rather than settling my curiosity, lands me smashed in between the wall of the crate and the canvas bag. I got back up and rested for a bit in a semi-comfortable spot, but the ship hits a spot of turbulence, and my leg was then stuck underneath a spiky canvas bag.

Wonderful… just _great_…

I tore my hands around the canvas bag, trying to find an opening to its contents, so that I could get out of this mess. Being so dark in here, I could not see a thing. Ah ha! A zipper!

A zipper?

Oh well… I yanked on the zipper with all of my might, and the bag tore open and my leg was jostled free.

But then I saw the contents of the bag, and my situation just got a whole lot worse.

It turns out that the bumpiness I felt was _not_ a spot of turbulence, but the vessel landing in Kharak, because the engines turned off. And as for the contents? Well…

I had primed, by the yanking of the zipper (which was made of more than one microscopic metal part, obviously…) a giant crate of winged bombs.

That sure explains a lot.

In a frantic panic, I slam my head against the roof of the crate, but more crates were clearly on top of mine. I grab one of the bombs, and use its spiky wing tip to pry a sideboard of the crate off. My crate was on the edge of the stack in the hull of the airship.

"Pietro!" I call, not thinking about the possibility of troops hearing me. A hand grabs me from the shirt neckline and pulls me behind a crate. It was Pietro.

"What did you do now?" He whispers loudly in my ear.

"Bombs!"

"Bombs? Where would you find…" but then he hears the ticking in the background. "Oh no… Lets get out of here!"

We dart out from behind the crate pyramid and dash out the door, no longer worried about being seen. I barely remember anything but shouting guards, and stairs… endless stairs… Pietro seemed to know where he was going, but I was just going to have to trust him, because I had no idea where we were on this giant ship.

Then, an explosion rocked the ship hull, and hundreds of troops were no longer organized, running about the ship in a crazed frenzy to get to the Bridge. Commanding koopas were trying desperately to restrain order, but were unsuccessful almost to the point of comicality.

Thankfully, Pietro and I stayed together and joined the hundreds of troops in the race for the Bridge.

I wondered, even in all of the panic and confusion: How much of the future had I changed so far? Or was the future only the future because I changed these things? I don't know… explosions I would consider "major future changes".

And how did I get myself into this mess?

**Luigi**

"Well bro, here you go… the _Silver Star_, ready for action! Why don't you give her a test run?"

Mario and I were standing in the garage of our house (smack in the middle of the woods, of course) with the garage door open, admiring our work. We had repainted, renamed, and hidden the flying and battle tank controls of the _Shooting Star_. It would now be called the _Silver Star_ until I retired from racing.

I nodded toward Mario, and stepped inside the one-person cockpit of the _Silver Star_. The steering wheel felt natural under my white gloves, and the pedals were just the right length from the front seat. I turned the key in the ignition, and the powerful engines hummed to life, vibrating under my fingers. The kart was full of stored-up energy and ready to ride.

And so was I.

I step on the gas and tear down the tiny path that led the way to the warp to Toad Town. At full speed… I crashed into nothing. The kart seemed to respond to my very thoughts, turning whenever there was an unexpected tree off the path or once even _jumping_ when there was a stump in the middle of the trail.

Before you could say, "Let's-a-go!" I was speeding around the outskirts of Toad Town, far exceeding the speed limit. These back roads were almost never used, and their thin, dirty complexion was a good practice for drifting.

I felt so free and with this kart whipping around turns without even sending up dust, the engine humming underneath the hood, and the _perfect_ stats.

But would this be enough? How tough would Banana Cup racers be? Do I even need to worry at all?

**A/N: Sorry this one was a little shorter than the others, but if I continued, the product would've been too long to be called a chapter.**

_**Coming up next… CHAPTER 8 (LESS ANSWERS, MORE QUESTIONS):**_** A mysterious stranger rescues Lillian and Pietro from certain doom in Kharak, but who is he and is he working for Bowser? Melody finds the owner of the mystery cave, and she seems to know something about Melody's flashbacks. Bowser sends his eight children to look for the escaped prisoners while Luigi races in the Banana Cup.**

**Yep! Lots of interesting stuff coming soon… stay tuned and REVIEW!**

**Press it… You know you want to…**

**l **

**V**


	8. Less Answers, More Questions

**Annoying Announcer Voice: Welcome back to **_**18 Years in the Future**_**! **

**For all of you Koopaling fans, they start to show up in this chapter as the bounty hunters of Pietro and Lillian, escaped prisoners and the bane of the **_**Mighty**_** (the blown-up airship). I apologize if I get their names mixed up (Morton's the one with the pink cap, right?). If so, tell me in a review. For all of those of you who are fed up with the koopalings being in seemingly every single fic on this site… I know how you feel. These koopalings will fall in love with nobody or be very centric in appearances.**

**Enjoy the chapter! -Kat**

**Lillian**

Pietro and I raced through the streets of a village in Kharak with troops hot on our tails. We needed faster transportation… fast.

The commanding koopa officers had eventually evacuated the _Mighty_ of all troops and figured out that escaped prisoners were behind the explosion. Paratroopas were chasing us at top notch speed, but these were no ordinary paratroopas. These koopas, rather than having white-feathered wings, had jet packs strapped to their red or green shells.

I hopped over an old rotten fence, and Pietro scrambled over, but slowly. I stopped and waited for him to catch up. He was panting and out of breath when he finally did.

Doubled over, he pointed toward an alleyway across the street and said, "Lose them… there…"

We raced across the lampless narrow street and into the alleyway. The rotten fence was destroyed as a paratroopa gathered himself up into his shell and smashed through, others hot on his tail. The lead trooper looked straight at our alleyway for a disturbingly long time, then took his troops speeding down the street.

I breathed out a long sigh and collapsed on the floor of the alleyway, a _very_ bad idea. These alleyways were far more disgusting than the Toad Town ones, but I didn't care. We were safe at last.

Kharak Village was a dark and dismal place. I barely saw any people, but rather, koopas dressed in rags shuffling along the street. My heart reached out to them and I was glad that Kharak wouldn't have to suffer through this much longer (it depended on how far back in time we were. Of that I still didn't know). In the future, a vast republic stretched across World Eight, living in peace and prosperity. The volcanos and the poisonous gases were still there, but the new ruler was using modern science to take care of that.

"We need to get out of Kharak. We're not safe with all of these troops around," said Pietro.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." I snapped, my hunger and weariness getting the better of me. I was in a cranky mood. "But we need transportation too. We can't just _walk_ to the Mushroom Kingdom."

Pietro rolled his eyes, but nodded.

"And food."

Pietro looked like food could wait, but he had been packed in a crate of _apples_. I was in a crate of _bombs_. Bombs could not be eaten easily, in case you didn't already know that.

I stood up suddenly, and peeked my head out of the alley. No one was visible but a few starving koopas. Then, I heard a steady whine coming from down the street. I realized it might be the jet-koopas and ducked against the alley wall. It was, they passed, and I let out a breath.

But Pietro gave a small yell and I whipped to face towards the depths of the alleyway. I saw a tall humanoid figure, and then the world went black very suddenly.

I was lying on a couch. A very dirty, very old, very hard couch but a couch nonetheless. Pietro, I saw once my vision came back into focus, was lying on some dirty rags on the floor next to the couch, unconscious.

This was the second time I had been knocked out in this whole escapade, and in my life.

I sat up, but immediately felt something hard protruding from my shoulder brush up against the couch side, and a chill ran up my spine. I yanked it out, and a little bit of blood ran, but not too much. It was a dart, a tranquilizer dart.

I sat up fully and wondered where we were. I looked around to see that we were in a very dirty, probably structurally unsound house. The walls and the floors were covered in dirt, and daylight shone through a small, open window, illuminating one cot in the corner and an old propane stove in the other corner. Whoever captured us obviously did not work for Bowser, unless his soldiers were treated this badly.

I heard footsteps approaching from outside, and stood up from the couch. Though I was hit with a fit of dizziness from the poison, I kept standing and the feeling ebbed gradually. A door opened, and an adolescent human boy walked in, no older than I was, fourteen. His hair was greasy and slicked, but short, like it had been hacked off to be that way occasionally. He was dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt, but neither was clean. His skin tone was that of someone who had lived in Kharak for a very long time.

"What do you want with…" I started, but stopped when I saw the dead crow, the arrow quiver, and the strong, lean bow.

He answered in a deep, hoarse voice, "You were in danger. I couldn't leave you running around the streets of this town alone."

"So you shot us?"

"Would you have accepted my help otherwise?"

Hmm… how about no? I still don't trust you!

"The poison is only meant to knock you out, it will not hurt you in any other way," he said. Now I'm suspicious. He throws the dead crow onto the propane stove, but does not turn it on.

Now for the million dollar question…

"Who are you?"

At first I thought he would conceal everything or tell me some weird spy code name he made up on the spot, or refuse to tell me anything at all. I don't know what I was expecting, I only _met_ him a few minutes ago.

"My name is Niko Castrokhis. I've lived here, on my own, for my whole life since my mother died. Who are you?"

Our dialogue made Pietro stir. He yawned and sat up, but jumped when he found the dart. Being royalty, having darts in us is a capital offense to the person who shot them. Be glad, Niko Castrokhis, Aunt Peach isn't around…

"My name is Lillian, and this is Pietro." Pietro tried to lift himself up off the ground, but sat right back down again.

"Really? So, I'm not going to ask why soldiers of King Bowser are after you or why the _Mighty_ was blown up into ruins at about the same time this chase started… Where are you headed?"

"That's confidential," Pietro groggily said.

"Really?" Niko left the one-roomed house and a banging was heard from outside, then a mighty roar like that of which would come from an airplane engine, except lower. Pietro and I exchanged a glance, then ran outside.

The house was situated about a mile from the village, and I could still see the flames from the wreckage of the _Mighty_, the airship. Around us was barren obsidian plains, with a few lean crows flying around and… a walking pumpkin or two? Well, that's World Eight for you. Some say it's the poison that causes the mutation in plants and animals, but I think it's the dark magic in the air.

Niko was standing next to a motorcycle, a very large one that belched out black fumes every second or two.

"Hop on!"

A motorcycle! Way cool! I hopped on the back behind Niko, but Pietro took much longer to get in the side car. He was trying to say something to me.

"What did you say?"

Pietro kept trying to shout, and I caught "this guy" and "trust" but before I could answer over the roar of the engine, the bike took off at a speed that would make most people scream and hop off, even though we were surely going far over eighty miles-per-hour, and you would be more likely to get hurt jumping off than you were on the motorcycle.

I shouted in delight, while Pietro was screaming something about seatbelts and there being none in the sidecar. Well, there weren't any on the cycle either. I doubt there's a seatbelt law in Bowser's Empire.

We traversed through the rest of World Eight in a few hours. By then, Pietro had stopped screaming about seatbelts and instead buried himself in the sidecar. I never stopped whooping in delight, which I'm sure got on Niko's nerves. A lot of things would probably get on his nerves.

When it got dark (well, darker than usual), Niko stopped the bike in one swift motion. I hopped off the bike while poor Pietro slowly got up out of the sidecar, looking a bit green in the face.

"Best ride EVER!" Niko rolled his eyes when he thought I wasn't looking. It was his motorcycle, he probably rode it all the time.

We decided, or rather, Niko decided, to camp in a canyon ledge about ten feet off the ground. Pietro motioned toward a sheltered alcove in the canyon wall later, so I followed him there.

He whispered, "We are stuck in the middle of World Eight with _him_ as our guide! Does that feel right to you?" I shrugged.

"Umm… He's all we got, In case you haven't noticed that already. There's something about him I can trust."

"Look at what we've gotten ourselves into! We're stuck in the middle of World Eight, miles from the nearest civilization with no food, no water, and someone who _shot us_ only yesterday as our guide! Who knows where he's taking us!" Pietro was exasperated and stressed. I could try to understand or at least help, but I wasn't done being mad at him yet.

_Ugh… I wish Melody was here…_

**Melody**

I stumbled upon a larger cavern, filled with stalagmites and stalactites, like large pointy teeth of a giant monster. _This whole cave feels unstable…_ And then, I heard it: the twinkling noise. I looked around, the noise was louder and stronger than ever. I climbed down a ladder that led to the cavern floor, and began to search the cavern for the producer of that infernal noise! But then I heard something else: humming. Someone was singing in this weird cavern. And I wasn't the only one down here.

I hid behind a gigantic stalagmite, breathing hard. How did this happen? It's like these situations… just come and find me! One weird danger, one new acquaintance after the next! _Almost like the adventures Mother and Father used to have, before Father became King._

"Hello, Princess Melody Toadstool,"

"Wah!"

"There's no need to be frightened. My name is Harmony, and I am the owner of this cavern." This cavern had an owner? Who would want to own a cavern, especially this one? For the first time, I caught a glimpse of Harmony and gasped. She looked almost exactly like me: short wavy blonde hair, tall, blue eyes, fair skin, but older. And her dress was prettier, whereas mine was soggy and ruined. "I've been waiting for you to come to this cavern for a long time."

How could she know I was… coming here. It practically wasn't even my choice to come! But I _had_ to get that dumb controller… Then I had a thought.

"Do you know what this is?" I showed Harmony the controller. Any normal person, if they had been in my situation, would been outta that cavern before you could say "time travel", but some gut instinct told me to trust Harmony. But then again, the same gut instinct told me to get the controller lying next to the entrance to the cavern.

She laughed and tossed the controller back to me, "You don't need this _or_ the rest of it! This is a mortal's work. I can accomplish what mortals fantasize only in their wildest dreams!" Something unnerved me about the way she said _mortal_, as if she wasn't. I was about to find out something else.

"Um… what's the rest of it?"

"You didn't dismantle it like you were supposed to?" Something told me this Harmony person has the wrong girl…

"Um, no. I was never told anything," I said. Harmony stared at me, as if reaching into my mind.

"Hmm… You, your brother and your cousin were going to check it out, but you had an appointment with… Ah! She always ruins everything!" I was freaking out now. Was she sane? And how much did she know about me?

"I know everything about you, Melody."

Great… She's a MIND READER too!

"So… um, why am I here?"

"I think you know that."

"I, um, followed a twinkling noise here."

Harmony laughed, a melodic laugh. "About that… Well, I have some explaining to do, if you are willing to trust me."

Trust you? Ha!

"Okay." What just came out my mouth?

"Alright… You have been receiving flashbacks. Am I correct?" How does she know? Oh, the whole mind-reader thing.

"Yes. Those are flashbacks eighteen years in the past. You, Princess Melody Toadstool, are the eighth and most powerful star child, the child of Time."

No way.

That can't be true… the star children are only a legend!

"Your mother and father were the star children of Courage and of Peace. When you were born… Well, you inherited quite a bit of power."

Despite all of my training at Castle Toadstool to be a proper princess, I interrupted Harmony. This was a big deal. "Does Pietro have powers too?"

"No, all of your parents' spare powers were given to you, the firstborn. Also, because of this… adventures tend to… well, find you." I nodded. I got my own self into this mess.

"One last question… Where are Pietro and Lillian, my cousin and brother?"

"That machine you have a critical part of resting in your hand is a time machine, built by a mortal scientist named Professor Elvin Gadd, a friend of mine. I was the one who gave it its time-traveling power. Unfortunately mortal machines, even the ones built by him, are fallible. The machine was splinched. Your friends are okay, though eighteen years in the past, but a crucial part of the machine was left behind, this controller." I nodded again in understanding. "They cannot get back until you return this to them."

"And how will I do that?"

"Isn't it obvious? By going back in time yourself, of course!"

**Kamek**

King Bowser had gathered up his eight children, the Koopalings and Bowser Jr., into the Great Hall for an announcement. In my opinion, this took far more effort than was really necessary.

"Tomorrow, I will kidnap the lovely Princess Peach!"

"Again?" the Koopas gathered groaned, almost in unison. Bowser scowled.

"Yes! But you will probably not be around to see her, because I have an assignment for you all!" The Koopalings perked up. "Remember the escaped prisoners? I need you to search every World, every Land, every nation until you find them. Is that clear?"

"Yes, King Dad!"

"Good…" said King Bowser with and evil smile, "So GO!" The Koopalings ran from the Great Hall and out to the Airship Garage. "Just, please… Be careful with that airship…"

Later, I confronted him. "Are you sure this is wise, Sire?"

"They need an assignment or two on occasion… After all, I have a reward for whoever catches them! I need info about that star child, and they know who he or she is! I'm positive."

Whatever you say…

"The lens is almost done, it will be completed in a week."

"Wonderful, Kamek! My plan is almost complete… Hehehe…"

**Melody's in for quite an adventure soon. :) I've decided to make chapters shorter so that I can update more often, now that it's summer. What do you think? REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!**

_**Coming up next in CHAPTER 9 (IT TRULY BEGINS): **_**Melody, after some training with her other-worldly counterpart, Harmony, travels back in time to begin her**__**search for Pietro and Lillian to return the controller. She finds them on the border of Nimbus Land, and befriends Niko. However, the Koopalings are hot on their tail! Peach is kidnapped (again…) and Mario tries to convince a certain someone to help save her… **


	9. Unions and Reunions

**I've been stocking up on chapters for a different story that will be posted in September, so that its readers won't have to be at the mercy of my slow updating. Unfortunately, this make **_**you**_** at the mercy of my even slower updating. So, that's the situation, in case you're wondering. I now have three stories going at once, but the third unpublished one will (hopefully) receive less attention from **_**moi**_**.**

**Melody**

"Do you know how to use your skills in combat?" Harmony had said several weeks before. Now, I was sweating and exhausted from doing just that. I learned that time-traveling took much energy, effort, and a physical condition that my body just didn't have. I, being a princess, was never trained in battle. I had the Mushroom Kingdom soldiers to fight the wars and the duels for me. Father was very skilled and had mentioned teaching Pietro a thing or two, but apparently, dueling is not for women, especially princess girls. Harmony thinks I need these skills because I have this "great and awesome destiny" or whatever. So I'm just going to have to trust her.

It's come to my mind whether or not I can trust Harmony at all. But I try not to think about that too much, because in case you've forgotten, she can read minds. It's very annoying.

"Melody, I'm not in your head _all_ the time and you know that. Now focus on what we are doing now: disarming techniques."

See what I mean? Oh, I almost forgot to mention something. I have a sword. Pretty cool, no? It was originally Harmony's sword, and she named it Swift as Time, but I just call her Swift. It's a neat name for a sword. She has a long silver blade that stretches down to my lower thigh when she's in her sheath, a midnight blue hilt set with sparkling white and purple gemstones. She's one of the most beautiful things I ever saw.

Now, Harmony and I are sparring in the Cave Between Time (I think Harmony could've named it something grander, though), the original cavern that I met her in. She's a whole lot better than I am.

"Ready, go!" A couple times, she didn't even ask me if I was ready, but I suppose the enemy's not going to do that either.

I matched Harmony's complex footwork as she gently swung her sword. Then BAM! I was knocked to the ground by Force Unknown. No, seriously, Force Unknown, which is Harmony's sword, knocked me to the ground. I looked at Harmony.

"Always be ready for surprise attacks." That's about the tenth time she said that, and the twentieth time she's knocked me to the ground. "You know, you can see into the immediate future, so you would be warned of a surprise attack anyway, right?" It's the second time she's said _that_. "Focus, Melody." About fifty. And that's just today!

We began to spar once again. The goal for this lesson was to disarm Harmony at some point during the duel. That basically ends the battle before I have to use some of the other stuff she's taught me.

Swift was a good sword, but what was worth more were my skills. All of a sudden, time slowed down. I looked around in wonder. Were these my powers? I looked at Harmony's sword. It was moving at about two miles per hour, so I decided to disarm it. Time speeded back up again and Harmony's sword was on the ground. At first, I couldn't believe my luck.

"It isn't luck, Melody, it's skill." There she goes, in my mind again. "You used your powers, so you won. Simple. Would you like some water?" I would love some water! I took the glass from Harmony and drank all the water in it in one swift gulp. "That will be all, for today. Tomorrow, I will send you back in time eighteen years, so that you can return your cousin and brother to the future." I nodded. I had been expecting this for almost two weeks since she told me, and I felt I was ready.

I looked around the Cave Between Time. I liked it here. The stalagmites and stalactites sometimes do random things, like morph into statues or spit out purple goo, which is actually a delicious substance known as Cille. It's perfectly safe to drink, gives you energy for the next twelve hours (which has kept me up at night, unfortunately), enhances your powers, and one sip will substitute a meal. Either that, or Harmony made that up. She makes up a lot of things. Cille does taste good though, and it really does keep you up late.

I can't return to Castle Toadstool until I can find Pietro and Lillian. The Cave Between Time is, well, between time. No matter how much time I spend down here (seven weeks, so far. My birthday was a few weeks ago. Harmony and I celebrated with a Cille cake, which is DELICIOUS) no time will pass in the Mushroom Kingdom. The civilians won't even notice anything, except for that I might disappear in one place and reappear in another. I might be a couple weeks older though, and that might add up after a while.

With a crack and a flash of light, I was warped eighteen years back in time, on what looked like the border of Worlds Seven and Eight. Obsidian covered the ground and thick fog rolled across the sky. But why was I here? You'd think Pietro and Lillian would be in World One, in the Mushroom Kingdom. But I was very wrong, for out of the fog came none other than Pietro, Lillian, and another human I didn't recognize. The unknown human was pulling behind him a very large motorcycle, which was grumbling loudly and making odd popping noises.

"I told too many wheelies would overload it, Lillian!" said the mystery human, "Now, we are traveling on _foot_."

"Aw, c'mon. They were worth it! Niko, you're no fun!" This definitely sounded like my cousin. But who was this Niko? I placed my hand on Swift's hilt, ready to fight if he turned out to be their captor, which would explain why they were in World Eight. But then again, he let Lillian do wheelies on his motorcycle, so he might not be all that bad. And letting Lillian do wheelies is a very brave thing to do.

I took a deep breath and said, "Excuse me!" There were two sharp _twang_s and I detected arrows flying at me, probably from "Niko". I instantly drew Swift and blocked both. "It's me, Melody!"

"Melody!" my cousin and brother cried and we all shared a group hug. Lastly, but not least, came Niko. He still had his bow, and another two arrows were notched, but he put it down.

"Niko, this is Melody, my cousin and Pietro's older sister," Lillian introduced me. Niko still looked wary. He was tall, and looked about Lillian's age. He certainly looked like he'd seen better days, and that his clothes haven't been washed in ages. He was good with a bow and arrows, obviously. If I was still in the Mushroom Kingdom, somebody like him would be driven from the castle gates. But still, I knew my history, and eighteen years ago, World Eight was ruled under the koopa tyrant Bowser, who had actually kidnapped Mother so many times that the Mushroom Kingdom had to acquire two heroes from a different dimension: Father and Uncle Luigi, the Mario Bros. I wouldn't be surprised if the Darklands contained sorrier-looking people.

I wondered if Harmony knew the whole time where my friends were. It seemed too easy, just being warped here.

"So," I said, "Looking for this?" I held up the olive green controller and Lillian and Pietro's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed with confusion.

"How did you get _that_? We've been looking for it for almost a week now!" Pietro asked me.

"It wasn't with you at all. The time machine was splinched, and the controller was left in the present." Nods of understanding. "Now, a lot has happened since you guys left, and I have some news…"

And so I proceed to tell them all about the prophecy, Harmony, my training, powers, and Swift. Pietro is doubtful, but Lillian catches on pretty quickly and starts to think up about a million antics I could pull on innocent civilians, like the fruit stand trick. In a busy marketplace, set up several fruit stands. Sell some fruit to an innocent Toad, then, after about ten minutes, travel nine and a half minutes back in time to one of your other fruit stands. Sell that same Toad some more fruit. Do the same with several stands until that poor Toad has seen at least ten of you, all selling fruit, at the same time.

You know, sometimes I wonder about Lillian, and what exactly goes on in her mind. I probably don't want to know.

Lillian and Pietro had their own news to share. I found out how they traveled in time, watched Uncle Luigi race, got kidnapped and questioned by Bowser, escaped with the aid of the Colonel, blown up an airship, met Niko, and done wheelies all the way here.

And all the while, Niko was listening quietly.

The questioning by Bowser, I was very curious about. He wanted information on me, I was sure. But how could he even _know_ about me? I've been in the past for about… half an hour. I was positive he wanted to know the whereabouts of the eighth star child (me), not Princess Peach. Are there others like me that he could've sent as spies into the future? No, there is only one "Star Child Number Eight", I think, and it's me. I don't think anyone else can travel in time without Professor E. Gadd's machine. Could he have gotten a hold of the machine somehow? Not likely… This question will remain unanswered, for now. What matters is that Bowser's after me, and I need to be ready.

**Mario**

"Hey bro, I need to borrow the _Shoo_-, I mean, _Silver Star_ for a quick ride to Castle Toadstool."

"Aw, Mario, I need to practice!"

"You've been practicing all day, all week! I think we both agree you could use a break." Luigi opened his mouth, but closed it again. "Thanks, I owe you one."

I left the house and strapped myself into the _Silver Star_, the best racing machine in the Eight-Worlds and also the coolest flying machine ever seen. I opened the secret flying controls and levitated the car into the air, then ZOOM! I was off. I took a deep breath. My palms were sweaty, so I took off my gloves and placed them in the passenger's seat. Usually, there was no passenger's seat, but one could fold it up from a secret compartment. Why did I have the passenger's seat up? Well, I was finally going to do it. I was going to ask Peach to take a ride in the most awesome car ever. I needed to spend some time with her before she's married off to that creep, Este-what's-his-name.

I finally arrived at Toad Town, only to find what I've been dreading for a while, happening again. _You have the worst possible timing EVER, Bowser!_ I thought. His airships were just pulling away.

Then, I had a thought. A test. Of course! If Este-what's-his-name really loves her so much… why doesn't _he_ save her? Now, I'm not saying I don't mind saving Princess Peach. Noo… Not at all! Saving her has been what's gained Luigi and me her friendship and the kingdom's trust.

But I should at least ask. Maybe if he refuses, that would give Peach's side of the argument more leverage…

I turned southward, toward the Mushroom Kingdom's border, and where the Delfino Kingdom's seas began.

Later, I reached Palace Delfino, a large tower-like structure where the Prince lived. I could only hope he was there. I landed the _Silver Star_ in a nearby park and shut off the engine. I walked in the front door and a grand palace indoors met my eyes.

Everything was red, gold, or green. A spiral staircase, golden with a red carpet, led to all of the rooms in the Palace. Innumerable Noki servants dressed in green were walking up and down the staircase, some cleaning, some carrying food or clothes. One came up to me and asked,

"What is your business here at Palace Delfino, sir?"

I replied politely, "I would like to see the Prince Esteban Delfino. My name is Mario Mario of the Mushroom Kingdom."

"Oh! Mr. Mario, sir, I would be delighted to assist you! He is upstairs…" The Noki led me up the staircase and into a room towards the top floor. A large indoor tennis court spanned from the door to the windows of the Palace, in which the Prince was playing tennis with one of the Noki servants.

"Ha! I win again!" he said. But I noted that he wasn't that good, and that the opponent Noki was probably letting him win. He then turned toward me, recognized me instantly, and his mood turned scornful. "What brings you here?" The Noki that had greeted Mario at the door was probably wondering if it was a wise decision bringing me up here without asking the Prince first.

"I came to ask you a question, a question about the Princess of my home kingdom."

"Her? Why, of course! I am aware she has _many_ royal admirers that have had their hopes crushed recently and would be glad to answer any questions they might have for me." My insides boiled up and I was already struggling to keep my speech contained. One thought kept me under control: _If you explode at him, the longer Peach has to stay with that even bigger creep Bowser…_

"No, it is a personal question, concerning you, too. If she was kidnapped by Bowser again, would you save her?" The two Nokis were wise enough to leave the room, muttering something about cleaning the swimming pool. News had not yet reached Isle Delfino about Peach, and I wasn't even sure it was big enough news anymore to be inter-kingdom news.

"Is this a trick question?" Yes, it was, technically. "Because of _course_ I would brave the seas and the lands, using my sword, Sea's Wind, to best all of the bosses and those infernal koopas…" And so he launched into an extensive monologue, implying throughout that he could save Princess Peach much better than I ever could. Sure…

"Great!" I said, "Because you are going to do exactly that!" For once, the Prince was silenced. "Peach has been kidnapped once again by Bowser, and since you are her fiancé, I think the public would find it quite romantic if _you_ saved her this time." I had Esteban in a trap now. He couldn't refuse, because he had just bragged about how he could easily save the Princess, so he would have to accept.

"Alright, but _you're_ coming with me, as a guide." Hey! He had no right… Oh, fine.

"Okay. I know some great warp pipes we can take not far from here…" My reaction frustrated him, I could tell. Good. "If you want to take your sword, that would help."

"It's, um, at the silversmith's."

"That's fine. I'll teach you how to Stomp." Esteban had a look on his face that said _What did I get myself into?_ Quite plainly, but I didn't care. This rescue mission would certainly be interesting, even more so than the one that took place in space. Heck, the whole gravity deal was pretty cool, the way it kept changing (which unfortunately also led to the need to eat many 1-up mushrooms before an attempt to retrieve a star), but having someone besides Luigi tagging along would be even more intriguing.

Luigi. Agh! He still thinks I was taking the _Silver Star_ for a ride to Castle Toadstool and back! After exiting the Palace, I called Luigi up and told him everything.

"Hehe, that's funny bro! Yeah, I understand you have to save Peach, but would you drop by the house and drop the _Silver Star_ off, first?" 

"Sure, Luigi."

"Alright. Bye!

"Bye!"

Let's-a-go.

**Ludwig von Koopa**

For now, I was the pilot. That would soon change when one of my brothers or sister would emerge victorious from the bickering that was going on behind me. Well, we koopas would call it an insignificant bicker. Most people would call it barbaric brawling.

"Be silent back there! I am trying to focus my intellectual capacity onto driving this vessel!"

"Uh, what did he say?" said Larry, the youngest.

"Dunno," said Morton. "I think he's trying to drive and wants us to be quiet."

"Yeah, that might make sense," said Roy.

Sometimes their conversations upon the subject of one's speech frighten me. But in truth, I was not focusing my _entire_ intellectual capacity on piloting the airship, but also some of it onto devising a plot to capture the escaped prisoners. I had originally planned upon splitting all of us up and giving each of my siblings a World to search in, but that would not quite be fully efficient, because there would be an extra World, unless we could get the aid of Bowser Jr. as well. So I decided to just search one world at a time, with this airship. The airship, _Flame Flyer_, was one of the most powerful in the Garage. I had also decided to search the Territory of Kharak first, since that was the last time the prisoners were sighted. I knew a large shipment of winged bob-ombs were in that ship, and were the likely cause of the explosion. But still, someone had to ignite them.

I didn't quite foresee that making all these decisions on my own would not have the desired cooperation of my siblings.

We argued for quite some time and I had to eventually had to stop _Flame Flyer_ for fear I would crash her. King Dad would certainly not be pleased that a second airship was smashed into ruins on the high obsidian peaks of the Eighth World.

Yes… It would be a while before this mission got truly started.

**Not one of my longer chapters, but informative, that's for sure.**

_**Next…**__**(Chapter 10: Can't We Just Get Along?)**__ Everyone seems to have issues with their teammates. The subject of Princess Peach continues to crop up in Prince Esteban and Mario's conversation, and Mario's not liking it, Niko wants to withdraw from the group, but someone and something both tell him no, and the Koopalings continue to bicker but unknowingly draw ever closer to their quarry. It won't be long before they sight them again._

**Yep! Pretty cool stuff coming soon. Review soon, or I'll have to review myself! I have done that before, but I deleted the review… Don't make me do it again!**


	10. Teamwork is Difficult

**As of this chapter, the whole story takes place in the past. Sorry this was late, I had **_**huge**_** writer's block. I got over 18 pages done on my others in the past week alone, but I eventually figured out that I needed to quit pushing for an update so much and just relax and write!**

**We haven't had action either since Chapter Six… Hmm…**

**Mario**

This is by far the worst 'Saving the Princess' adventure yet.

Not that I don't like saving Peach, oh no. My adventures of the past have been almost fun (if you don't count the near-death experiences that come as an occupational hazard). It's just that I have _him_ tagging along this time. Not Luigi, not a luma, not even the many partners I had a while back, with the whole 'Void' business, but Prince Esteban Delfino, the biggest jerk that ever lived.

"So how many times _have_ you saved her?" I grit my teeth and answered his question: I had lost count. _The less we stop, the sooner Peach is away from the even bigger creep (if that's possible. They might be about the same) Bowser. And keeping up conversation keeps him walking…_ It was true: If the Prince got bored, he wanted to stop and eat lunch, or stop and talk to the locals, or just stop to rest… The list goes on. If he was as physically fit as he claimed to be, than a few more miles wouldn't hurt.

I hit a nearby Question Box, exposing a fire flower. It might come in handy, so I tucked it in my pocket.

"What is that?"

It took a whole lot of willpower to keep from rolling my eyes.

"It's a fire flower. The eater can throw fireballs for a short time, about ten minutes or so, at enemies."

"And you can just find them random places in these boxes?"

"Yep. The castle Toads scattered them to help me on my adventures. If they just give me a stock, I might use it all too soon, so they leave the boxes instead." Esteban nodded.

The warp pipe at the end of the path was marked, "Mushroom City." I silently jumped for joy at this. Esteban and I had been at this since I confronted him yesterday, and we were already at the borders of the Mushroom Kingdom, yet still hoofing it. The right warp pipe can get you anywhere, and this one would take us to my favorite pit-stop of the adventure.

On the borders of the Mushroom Kingdom was a very large metropolis, Mushroom City. Mushroom City used to be the capital of the kingdom for almost two and a half hundred years out of the thousand years the kingdom has _existed_. It was the first capital, until the city just started getting so _big_ and the citizens' morals changing, that King Christopher Toadstool decided to move the castle to Toad Town, brick by brick.

Mushroom City was my favorite stop in the kingdom. Usually, I would rent a nice hotel for the night, eat at this cool revolving restaurant next door, and hopefully catch some MushroomKart racing at Mushroom Bridge, the local racecourse, before I would have to get moving again. Actually, Mushroom City had _four_ tracks (Mushroom City, Mushroom Bridge, Rainbow Road, and Moonview Highway) and was quite famous for that reason.

The pine forest surrounding our path gradually grew thicker and the sky darker.

"Hey! It's only two in the afternoon! Why is the sky getting darker?"

Now that's just taking it a tad too far. Has he never _been_ to Mushroom City, or even heard of it? I said, "That's the thing about Mushroom City, the town we're approaching. The legend says that when the capital was moved from there to Toad Town, the power stars that lie within the walls took the light from the city with it."

Actually, I totally made that up, and he believed it. He needs to get out more. But it's true that in Mushroom City, it has always been nighttime ever since the capital was moved to Toad Town. Who knows? It might have something to do with the power stars, but I wasn't going to worry about that right now.

Deep in Mushroom City, was a cannon. Now, this wasn't any ordinary cannon, it was a _magical_ cannon! Cheesy saying aside, allow me to explain.

Hundreds of years ago, the only gateway to one of the cloud kingdoms was this magical cannon, which shot not cannonballs, but people, into the air and landed them safely in the clouds. But then, with new technology (the hot-air balloon) and one fatality (though the operator was under the influence of a Bowser at the time), the cannon was abandoned. Just a couple of years ago, Princess Peach decided to put it to good use: adventure help. Now, the cannon would blast someone all the way to World Four, namely me, if I could find it… And my tag-along, Esteban, too.

So that's why I normally stop in the City. The cannon gives me a blast out of this world! Get it? Out of this… um… never mind.

But this round, I wouldn't even have _time_ to stop at all! Esteban and I were headed straight to the cannon, marked "W4".

"You know…" he said. I groaned inside my head. "You _always_ save Princess Peach, no matter why she's in danger or how hard it will be to save her. Why?"

I've been dreading this question. I tried to think of something wise and thoughtful to say that would hopefully shake him from prying further, but no avail. I _certainly_ couldn't tell him the truth, but I didn't want to lie, either. My morals were against it. So I was just left there, tongue-tied. Unfortunately, this leads Esteban into believing the truth is, well, true.

We had both stopped now, the cannon a mere one hundred feet from us. He had a scary look on his face.

"In four weeks and a day, the Princess and I will be _married_. That leaves absolutely no room in the picture for you. Besides, Mushroom Kingdom _law_ states _clearly_ that-"

"How much do you want to bet?" It popped out of my mouth, a slip of the tongue. Whoops. Esteban's eyes narrowed.

"I would bet my _status_ as a _Delfino Prince_ that it _will_ happen!" he spit. "The princess and I will be happy together, forever!"

"You know, you're no better than Bowser! Bowser kidnaps her, and chases off anyone who tries to save her! And you…" Don't ask me where that came from. "are worse. You don't even like her."

Esteban was dumbstruck, standing there on the darkened forest path. Even I was shocked at my own words as the moon shone down over us.

"You know what?" I said. "Truce."

He glared at me.

"Hey. We're not going to get much farther if we fight." I stuck out my white-gloved hand. He shook it, but I think he had his fingers crossed.

**Lillian**

Niko had brought in another crow. The food bought from a Kharak dry goods store was out.

"That… is disgusting," my cousin Melody said. Just yesterday, she told us her story and how she came to be here. Even I could barely believe it, but I knew by the look in her eyes that it was true.

"It's what we've got! The first town in World Seven isn't for miles. C'mon… it tastes like chicken." This was the most Niko had said all day, after repairing his motorcycle, and driving it for another hundred or so miles, but we stared at the World Eight crow, lifeless on our World Seven puff of cloud/table. Pietro was looking a little green in the face. I didn't blame him.

"I think I'll pass, thank you," I said. Niko rolled his eyes, but nodded in understanding. Though I thought I heard, "Royalty…" being muttered under his breath.

So yeah, we kind of had to tell him about the whole "royalty" thing. We figured he was honest since he let me do wheelies on his motorcycle yesterday, even though it broke the bike. But if he's not… Well, that's a risk we just have to take.

A few minutes later, after the lunch that never was, we were back on the motorcycle. We had tied a puff of cloud or two behind us, and that was where Melody and Pietro sat, catching up with one another. As for me, I rode in the sidecar. Oh yeah.

"Whooooo!" Niko looked annoyed. He better get used to that.

It was by dark that we reached the first town in the Seventh World, a small village called Stratusville on the outskirts of Nimbus Land. The first thing we did, since Bowser's troops were bound to be on the hunt, was hide Niko's bike in the clouds nearby. Then, we took the rest of Yoshi's coins and bought some food at a small general store. The Beezo at the counter looked tired and unconcerned; he probably won't remember a thing. We were just some customers.

For the first time on this trip, we rented rooms at an inn for the night, rather than sleeping out in the open. The Stratusville Family Inn and Breakfast was small, but had the nicest owners I had ever met, who gladly let us weary and young travelers rent for free (we had about twelve coins at this point). Of course, we didn't tell the family of Nimbus People the whole story.

"Hello, I'm Melody, and I'm from the future, supposed to be the object of a prophecy!"

"Hi, I'm Pietro, and I'm a prince from the future, forced to talk in front of the evil emperor Bowser!"

"Hey, I'm Niko. I'm Melody, Pietro, and Lillian's guide to the Mushroom Kingdom. Right now, we're being hunted by Bowser's evil followers, who could easily destroy this whole village."

"What's up? I'm Lillian, also a princess from the future. A couple days ago, we blew up one of Bowser's airships! Awesome!"

Nope, that wouldn't work. We'd be kicked out and turned in before you could say, "time travel".

It was dim in our hotel room, when Niko said something astonishing (to us, anyway) while talking to Melody about tomorrow's game plan.

"Tomorrow morning, you guys can rent a car with the remaining money you have, while I take the bike back to Kharak."

"Niko!" Melody protested. I sat up on the couch and Pietro poked his head out from under the bed covers.

"Come on… you can't expect me to stay here forever, did you?" he retorted. Melody and we were silent as Niko stared. Niko had grown on us.

"Why do you _want _to go back?" Pietro asked, almost accusingly. And it was Niko's turn to be silent. "No offense dude, but you've got almost nothing back there."

Niko took a deep breath, and answered his question as truthfully as he could muster.

"It's my father. I never knew him, and I have reason to believe he's still out there somewhere, and that he's worth finding."

"Well now, do you honestly think staying in Kharak is going to help you? Niko," said Melody, "It's likely he's elsewhere. If you want to look for him, this might be your best chance!"

There was a terrible silence for the longest time.

"Alright… I'll stay and travel."

"Yeah!" we cheered. He _had_ grown on us.

"But on one condition: we make a conscious effort to find clues to my father, whoever he might be."

"That's cool, Niko." I said. "I don't know how it feels, quite, to never know a parent, but my mom and dad mean a whole lot to me and I couldn't stand to lose them, or never know them in the first place. Don't worry about it."

And for the first time, _ever_ since we met him, Niko cracked a smile, and I knew he was now part of the team.

The next morning, after showers, sleep, and a very yummy breakfast courtesy of the family that owned the inn, we were off, racing across the clouds, dodging vines and paratroopas here and there. Unlike the previous world, the sun was out and bright, with not a cloud above us (they were below us, of course).

Little did I know, this would not be just another day of traveling in search of the Mushroom Kingdom.

We were zooming along the terrain, silent, listening to nothing but the growling of Niko's motorcycle. But then, we heard more engines behind us, steadily growing louder.

"Do I dare turn around?" Pietro said to Melody on the cloud.

"You might have to!" I said, and looked behind us. There was an airship tailing us, one of Bowser's. "Niko, kick up the speed! Get under cover!" And they had found us.

Niko took a veering right turn behind some vines, and hit the brakes. Maybe they hadn't seen us yet. But the cannonball shot from the airship, narrowly missing us, told us otherwise. Niko sped out from the cover of the vines and into the open stratus clouds.

The airship had opened "rapid-fire" and Niko kicked into sonic speed on his motorcycle (which I didn't even know it could do. His motorbike can do a lot of random things, though).

KA-BAM! Another cannonball blew a hole in the clouds.

Wait a second.

"Niko!" I shouted up at him, "We need to get to cover!"

"Tell me something I don't already know!"

"No! The clouds provide the best cover of all! Does your bike have a parachute?"

Weird looks from our passengers on the cloud.

"NO! It does not!"

A cannonball shot right in front of us, making Niko screech to a halt, kicking up water vapor and clouds with a screeching "SCREECH!" I looked back again, and our pursuers, whoever they might be, were much closer than before. I looked in the hole in front of us and saw… more clouds, less than ten feet below. Should be a soft landing.

"Lillian," said Pietro, "Maybe we should really think this…"

But that was all I heard, because at that point, I had hopped off the bike and jumped down the hole. But _nothing_ was the way I had seen it only a few seconds before. The cloud I had seen? It had moved, making way for the rocky mountain terrain of the sixth World below.

If nothing happened, I would fall until I hit the ground. Hard.

**Mr. Random Koopa Troopa**

Me? I'm nobody, just a random koopa troopa, working in the kitchen of one of Bowser's many airships. Nothing much exciting has ever really happened in my life, but today was quite different.

Mistress Wendy O. Koopa had called for a chocolate cake, and I was delivering said chocolate cake, when I found myself right in the middle of one of the Koopalings' "quarrels" (barbaric brawling, in your opinion).

"King Dad wants BOTH prisoners ALIVE, Roy!" shouted Ludwig von Koopa, "If she DIES, he tosses our video games into the VOLCANO! Now you don't want that… do you?"

Roy shook his head. Ludwig was intimidating.

"Good! Larry, you're piloting?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Capture her with the net!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"… And stop saying 'sir, yes sir!'"

"Sir, yes, er, sorry big bro…"

Ludwig shook his head, "Just… capture her before she hits the ground. Please." There were whispers amongst the other Koopalings at this news. Ludwig said "please"!

The net was out, and tangled in it, the escaped girl was reeled in to the airship's hull. Ludwig went down the stairs to see the prisoner.

Something exciting had _finally _happened to me! I was so overjoyed though, that I dropped the Mistress Wendy's chocolate cake, and she had just come over to get it.

It might be the _last_ thing that ever happened to me.

**Luigi**

This Kart is amazing, but the kart isn't everything in a race, skill is a must-have. Over the last few days, I've been practicing and practicing… and now the big day is here: my first race with the _Silver Star_.

I've been racing in the Retro Grand Prix for as long as I could remember racing, and it's always been my greatest dream to advance to the "big leagues", the Nitro Grand Prix. This kart might just get me there.

The first course of the Banana Cup was Bowser Castle 2, an old fort of Bowser's that had been long since abandoned. But the thwomps and the lava were still there…

3…

2…

1…

GO!

Managing a perfect speed start, I took off in the lead, but that soon disappeared. The lead, I mean. The toad girl from the previous race was back, and she took first place seconds into the race.

She too, had a brand new kart, a streamlined purple-spotted racer that was low to the ground and had unusually thin and long shaped headlights, stretching almost to the back of the kart.

I hit the first item box and came out with a banana. How helpful. I dropped the banana behind me and screeched around the sharp turn leading into a wider area, filled with numerous thwomps. I dodged and weaved around the thwomps the best I could, but it was no match for the two racers behind me, who could somehow do it better. Before I even hit the first boost pad on the next turn, I was in fourth place.

In the next area were a myriad of holes and boosts leading over them, but some holes were so big that the boosts wouldn't help you any. In fact, I usually don't even mess with the holes and the boost pads, just dodge them. But this time was different.

The toad girl had gotten hit by a blue shell, putting her back closer where I was. I managed to shout over the din, "You again?"

"Yeah! Third place moves on too, you know. Catch you later!" she said, and swerved to the left. I looked back in front of me to see a very large hole, and a very small boost pad. I would never make it.

But then, the person next to me (a koopa troopa with an obvious attitude) did something really, really stupid. He cut me off with a banana peel right in front of the boost pad, and went across it himself. _He _went across at an angle, so he landed on the side just fine. So did I, and survived the lava. For now.

I was in sixth place, definitely _not_ cool at all for someone with my goals. But the next item box I opened was a golden mushroom, which could definitely be put to good use.

It was the second lap, I was in fifth place, and still hanging on to that mushroom. In the area with the thwomps I finally decided to use it, and zipped through the track with no problem. I was still stuck in second.

Last lap, the crowd roars.

I manage to avoid the sides of the track, but the goomba behind me wasn't so lucky. Now, it was just me and the toad girl, of whom I still don't know the name. I should probably find out.

But then, the unthinkable happened. Again. I was hit by a koopa shell, and fell straight into the lava. By the time Lakitu had fished me out, I was in dead last.

Time for a miracle, and the stars were on my side today.

The next box was a bullet.

I zoomed back into second, and was neck and neck with the toad girl! (she looks like a "Zoe" to me, don't you think? Let's just call her that)

Would the bullet be enough? Or would I need to push on more speed that I just didn't have?


End file.
